Isaiah 28:14–22

¹⁴So listen to the Lord’s message, you who brag,

you leaders in Jerusalem.

¹⁵You say, “We have made an agreement with death;

we have a contract with death.

When terrible punishment passes by,

it won’t hurt us.

Our lies will keep us safe,

and our tricks will hide us.”

¹⁶Because of these things, this is what the Lord God says:

“I will put a stone in the ground in Jerusalem,

a tested stone.

Everything will be built on this important and precious rock.

Anyone who trusts in it will never be disappointed.

¹⁷I will use justice as a measuring line

and goodness as the standard.

The lies you hide behind will be destroyed as if by hail.

They will be washed away as if in a flood.

¹⁸Your agreement with death will be erased;

your contract with death will not help you.

When terrible punishment comes,

you will be crushed by it.

¹⁹Whenever punishment comes, it will take you away.

It will come morning after morning;

it will defeat you by day and by night.

Those who understand this punishment will be terrified.”

²⁰You will be like the person who tried to sleep

on a bed that was too short

and with a blanket that was too narrow

to wrap around himself.

²¹The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim.

He will be angry as he was in the Valley of Gibeon.

He will do his work, his strange work.

He will finish his job, his strange job.

²²Now, you must not make fun of these things,

or the ropes around you will become tighter.

The Lord God All-Powerful has told me

how the whole earth will be destroyed.