Isaiah 28

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.