Isaiah 28–30

Chapter 28

Ephraim’s Captivity Predicted

¹Woe to the proud crown of the ^adrunkards of ^bEphraim,

And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

Which is at the head of the ¹fertile valley

Of those who are ²overcome with wine!

²Behold, the Lord has a strong and ^amighty agent;

As a storm of ^bhail, a tempest of destruction,

Like a storm of ^cmighty overflowing waters,

He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.

³The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is ^atrodden under foot.

⁴And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

Which is at the head of the ¹fertile valley,

Will be like the ^afirst-ripe fig prior to summer,

Which ²one sees,

And ³as soon as it is in his ⁴hand,

He swallows it.

⁵In that day the ^aLord of hosts will become a beautiful ^bcrown

And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people;

⁶A ^aspirit of justice for him who sits in judgment,

A ^bstrength to those who repel the ¹onslaught at the gate.

⁷And these also ^areel with wine and stagger from strong drink:

^bThe priest and ^cthe prophet reel with strong drink,

They are confused by wine, they stagger from ^dstrong drink;

They reel while ¹having ^evisions,

They totter when rendering judgment.

⁸For all the tables are full of filthy ^avomit, without a single clean place.

⁹“To ^awhom would He teach knowledge,

And to whom would He interpret the message?

Those just ^bweaned from milk?

Those just taken from the breast?

¹⁰“For He says,

‘^1aOrder on order, order on order,

Line on line, line on line,

A little here, a little there.’ ”

¹¹Indeed, He will speak to this people

Through ^astammering lips and a foreign tongue,

¹²He who said to them, “Here is ^arest, give rest to the weary,”

And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.

¹³So the word of the Lord to them will be,

“¹Order on order, order on order,

Line on line, line on line,

A little here, a little there,”

That they may go and ^astumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.

Judah Is Warned

¹⁴Therefore, ^ahear the word of the Lord, O ^bscoffers,

Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,

¹⁵Because you have said, “We have made a ^acovenant with death,

And with ¹Sheol we have made a ²pact.

^bThe overwhelming ³scourge will not reach us when it passes by,

For we have made ^cfalsehood our refuge and we have ^dconcealed ourselves with deception.”

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord ¹God,

“^aBehold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested ^bstone,

A costly cornerstone for the foundation, ²firmly placed.

He who believes in it will not be ³disturbed.

¹⁷“I will make ^ajustice the measuring line

And righteousness the level;

Then ^bhail will sweep away the refuge of lies

And the waters will overflow the secret place.

¹⁸“Your ^acovenant with death will be ^1bcanceled,

And your pact with Sheol will not stand;

When the overwhelming scourge passes through,

Then you become its ^ctrampling place.

¹⁹“As ^aoften as it passes through, it will ¹seize you;

For ^bmorning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night,

And it will be ²sheer ^cterror to understand ³what it means.”

²⁰The bed is too short on which to stretch out,

And the ^ablanket is too ¹small to wrap oneself in.

²¹For the Lord will rise up as at Mount ^aPerazim,

He will be stirred up as in the valley of ^bGibeon,

To do His ^ctask, His ^1dunusual task,

And to work His work, His ²extraordinary work.

²²And now do not carry on as ^ascoffers,

Or your fetters will be made stronger;

For I have heard from the Lord ¹God of hosts

Of decisive ^bdestruction on all the earth.

²³Give ear and hear my voice,

Listen and hear my words.

²⁴Does the ¹farmer plow ²continually to plant seed?

Does he continually ³turn and harrow the ground?

²⁵Does he not level its surface

And sow dill and scatter ^acummin

And ¹plant ^bwheat in rows,

Barley in its place and rye within its ²area?

²⁶For his God instructs and teaches him properly.

²⁷For dill is not threshed with a ^athreshing sledge,

Nor is the cartwheel ¹driven over cummin;

But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a club.

²⁸Grain for bread is crushed,

Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever.

Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually ¹damage it,

He does not thresh it longer.

²⁹This also comes from the Lord of hosts,

Who has made His counsel ^awonderful and His wisdom ^bgreat.

Chapter 29

Jerusalem Is Warned

¹Woe, O ¹Ariel, Ariel the city where David once ^acamped!

Add year to year, ^2bobserve your feasts on schedule.

²I will bring distress to Ariel,

And she will be a city of lamenting and ^amourning;

And she will be like an Ariel to me.

³I will ^acamp against you ¹encircling you,

And I will set siegeworks against you,

And I will raise up battle towers against you.

⁴Then you will ^abe brought low;

From the earth you will speak,

And from the dust where you are prostrate

Your words will come.

Your voice will also be like that of a ¹spirit from the ground,

And your speech will whisper from the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your ¹enemies will become like fine ^adust,

And the multitude of the ^bruthless ones like the chaff which ²blows away;

And it will happen ^cinstantly, suddenly.

⁶From the Lord of hosts you will be ^apunished with ^bthunder and earthquake and loud noise,

With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.

⁷And the ^amultitude of all the nations who wage war against ¹Ariel,

Even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,

Will be like a dream, a ^bvision of the night.

⁸It will be as when a hungry man dreams—

And behold, he is eating;

But when he awakens, his ¹hunger is not satisfied,

Or as when a thirsty man dreams—

And behold, he is drinking,

But when he awakens, behold, he is faint

And his thirst is not quenched.

^aThus the multitude of all the nations will be

Who wage war against Mount Zion.

^9aBe delayed and wait,

Blind yourselves and be blind;

They ^bbecome drunk, but not with wine,

They stagger, but not with strong drink.

¹⁰For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep ^asleep,

He has ^bshut your eyes, the prophets;

And He has covered your heads, the seers.

¹¹The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed ^1abook, which when they give it to the one who ²is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹²Then the ¹book will be given to the one who ²is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I ³cannot read.”

¹³Then the Lord said,

“Because ^athis people draw near with their ¹words

And honor Me with their ²lip service,

But they remove their hearts far from Me,

And their ³reverence for Me ⁴consists of ⁵tradition learned by rote,

¹⁴Therefore behold, I will once again deal ^amarvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;

And ^bthe wisdom of their wise men will perish,

And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”

¹⁵Woe to those who deeply ^ahide their ¹plans from the Lord,

And whose ^bdeeds are done in a dark place,

And they say, “^cWho sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

¹⁶You turn things around!

Shall the potter be considered ¹as equal with the clay,

That ^awhat is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;

Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Blessing after Discipline

¹⁷Is it not yet just a little while

¹Before Lebanon will be turned into a ^afertile field,

And the fertile field will be considered as a forest?

¹⁸On that day the ^adeaf will hear ^bwords of a book,

And out of their gloom and darkness the ^ceyes of the blind will see.

¹⁹The ^aafflicted also will increase their gladness in the Lord,

And the ^bneedy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ^aruthless will come to an end and the ^bscorner will be finished,

Indeed ^call who ¹are intent on doing evil will be cut off;

²¹Who ¹cause a person to be indicted by a word,

And ^aensnare him who adjudicates at the gate,

And ^2bdefraud the one in the right with ³meaningless arguments.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed ^aAbraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob ^bshall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale;

²³But when ¹he sees his ^achildren, the ^bwork of My hands, in his midst,

They will sanctify My name;

Indeed, they will ^csanctify the Holy One of Jacob

And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴“Those who ^aerr in ¹mind will ^bknow ²the truth,

And those who ³criticize will ^4caccept instruction.

Chapter 30

Judah Warned against Egyptian Alliance

¹“Woe to the ^arebellious children,” declares the Lord,

“Who ^bexecute a plan, but not Mine,

And ^1cmake an alliance, but not of My Spirit,

In order to add sin to sin;

²Who ^aproceed down to Egypt

Without ^bconsulting ¹Me,

^cTo take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh

And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

³“Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be ^ayour shame

And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.

⁴“For ^atheir princes are at Zoan

And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes.

⁵“Everyone will be ^aashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,

Who are ^bnot for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”

⁶The ¹oracle concerning the ^abeasts of the ^bNegev.

Through a land of ^cdistress and anguish,

From ²where come lioness and lion, viper and ^dflying serpent,

They ^ecarry their riches on the ³backs of young donkeys

And their treasures on ^fcamels’ humps,

To a people who cannot profit them;

⁷Even Egypt, whose ^ahelp is vain and empty.

Therefore, I have called ¹her

“^2bRahab who has been exterminated.”

⁸Now go, ^awrite it on a tablet before them

And inscribe it on a scroll,

That it may ¹serve in the time to come

²As a witness forever.

⁹For this is a ^arebellious people, ^bfalse sons,

Sons who ¹refuse to ^clisten

To the ²instruction of the Lord;

¹⁰Who say to the ^aseers, “You must not see visions”;

And to the prophets, “You must not ^bprophesy to us what is right,

^cSpeak to us ¹pleasant words,

Prophesy illusions.

¹¹“Get out of the way, ^aturn aside from the path,

^1bLet us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,

“^aSince you have rejected this word

And have put your trust in ^boppression and guile,…