Isaiah 27–28

27In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,

Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,

^aLeviathan that twisted serpent;

And He will slay ^bthe reptile that is in the sea.

The Restoration of Israel

²In that day ^csing to her,

^d“A vineyard of ¹red wine!

^3eI, the Lord, keep it,

I water it every moment;

Lest any hurt it,

I keep it night and day.

⁴Fury is not in Me.

Who would set ^fbriers and thorns

Against Me in battle?

I would go through them,

I would burn them together.

⁵Or let him take hold ^gof My strength,

That he may ^hmake peace with Me;

And he shall make peace with Me.”

⁶Those who come He shall cause ⁱto take root in Jacob;

Israel shall blossom and bud,

And fill the face of the world with fruit.

^7jHas He struck ²Israel as He struck those who struck him?

Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?

^8kIn measure, by sending it away,

You contended with it.

^lHe removes it by His rough wind

In the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;

And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:

When he makes all the stones of the altar

Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,

³Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.

¹⁰Yet the fortified city will be ^mdesolate,

The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;

There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down

And consume its branches.

¹¹When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;

The women come and set them on fire.

For ⁿit is a people of no understanding;

Therefore He who made them will ^onot have mercy on them,

And ^pHe who formed them will show them no favor.

¹²And it shall come to pass in that day

That the Lord will thresh,

From the channel of ⁴the River to the Brook of Egypt;

And you will be ^qgathered one by one,

O you children of Israel.

^13rSo it shall be in that day:

^sThe great trumpet will be blown;

They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,

And they who are outcasts in the land of ^tEgypt,

And shall ^uworship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Woe to Ephraim and Jerusalem

28Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,

Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower

Which is at the head of the ¹verdant valleys,

To those who are overcome with wine!

²Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one,

^aLike a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,

Like a flood of mighty waters overflowing,

Who will bring them down to the earth with His hand.

³The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,

Will be trampled underfoot;

⁴And the glorious beauty is a fading flower

Which is at the head of the ²verdant valley,

Like the first fruit before the summer,

Which an observer sees;

He eats it up while it is still in his hand.

⁵In that day the Lord of hosts will be

For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty

To the remnant of His people,

⁶For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,

And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷But they also ^bhave erred through wine,

And through intoxicating drink are out of the way;

^cThe priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink,

They are swallowed up by wine,

They are out of the way through intoxicating drink;

They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

⁸For all tables are full of vomit and filth;

No place is clean.

⁹“Whom ^dwill he teach knowledge?

And whom will he make to understand the message?

Those just weaned from milk?

Those just drawn from the breasts?

^10eFor precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,

Line upon line, line upon line,

Here a little, there a little.”

¹¹For with ^fstammering lips and another tongue

He will speak to this people,

¹²To whom He said, “This is the ^grest with which

You may cause the weary to rest,”

And, “This is the refreshing”;

Yet they would not hear.

¹³But the word of the Lord was to them,

“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

Line upon line, line upon line,

Here a little, there a little,”

That they might go and fall backward, and be broken

And snared and caught.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men,

Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,

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

And with Sheol we are in agreement.

When the overflowing scourge passes through,

It will not come to us,

^hFor we have made lies our refuge,

And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

A Cornerstone in Zion

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I lay in Zion ⁱa stone for a foundation,

A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;

Whoever believes will not act hastily.

¹⁷Also I will make justice the measuring line,

And righteousness the plummet;

The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,

And the waters will overflow the hiding place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death will be annulled,

And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;

When the overflowing scourge passes through,

Then you will be trampled down by it.

¹⁹As often as it goes out it will take you;

For morning by morning it will pass over,

And by day and by night;

It will be a terror just to understand the report.”

²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch out on,

And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.

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

He will be angry as in the Valley of ^kGibeon—

That He may do His work, ^lHis awesome work,

And bring to pass His act, His ³unusual act.

²²Now therefore, do not be mockers,

Lest your bonds be made strong;

For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts,

^mA ⁴destruction determined even upon the whole earth.

Listen to the Teaching of God

²³Give ear and hear my voice,

Listen and hear my speech.

²⁴Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?

Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?

²⁵When he has leveled its surface,

Does he not sow the black cummin

And scatter the cummin,

Plant the wheat in rows,

The barley in the appointed place,

And the ⁵spelt in its place?

²⁶For He instructs him in right judgment,

His God teaches him.

²⁷For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin;

But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick,

And the cummin with a rod.

²⁸Bread flour must be ground;

Therefore he does not thresh it forever,

Break it with his cartwheel,

Or crush it with his horsemen.

²⁹This also comes from the Lord of hosts,

ⁿWho is wonderful in counsel and excellent in ⁶guidance.