Isaiah 28–30

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.

Woe to Jerusalem

29“Woe ^ato ¹Ariel, to Ariel, the city ^bwhere David dwelt!

Add year to year;

Let feasts come around.

²Yet I will distress Ariel;

There shall be heaviness and sorrow,

And it shall be to Me as Ariel.

³I will encamp against you all around,

I will lay siege against you with a mound,

And I will raise siegeworks against you.

⁴You shall be brought down,

You shall speak out of the ground;

Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;

Your voice shall be like a medium’s, ^cout of the ground;

And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

⁵“Moreover the multitude of your ^dfoes

Shall be like fine dust,

And the multitude of the terrible ones

Like ^echaff that passes away;

Yes, it shall be ^fin an instant, suddenly.

^6gYou will be punished by the Lord of hosts

With thunder and ^hearthquake and great noise,

With storm and tempest

And the flame of devouring fire.

⁷ⁱThe multitude of all the nations who fight against ²Ariel,

Even all who fight against her and her fortress,

And distress her,

Shall be ^jas a dream of a night vision.

^8kIt shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,

And look—he eats;

But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;

Or as when a thirsty man dreams,

And look—he drinks;

But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,

And his soul still craves:

So the multitude of all the nations shall be,

Who fight against Mount Zion.”

The Blindness of Disobedience

⁹Pause and wonder!

Blind yourselves and be blind!

^lThey are drunk, ^mbut not with wine;

They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.

¹⁰For ⁿthe Lord has poured out on you

The spirit of deep sleep,

And has ^oclosed your eyes, namely, the prophets;

And He has covered your heads, namely, ^pthe seers.

¹¹The whole vision has become to you like the words of a ³book ^qthat is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”

^rAnd he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹²Then the book is delivered to one who ⁴is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I am not literate.”

¹³Therefore the Lord said:

^s“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths

And honor Me ^twith their lips,

But have removed their hearts far from Me,

And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

^14uTherefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work

Among this people,

A marvelous work and a wonder;

^vFor the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”

^15wWoe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,

And their works are in the dark;

^xThey say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”

¹⁶Surely you have things turned around!

Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;

For shall the ^ything made say of him who made it,

“He did not make me”?

Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

Future Recovery of Wisdom

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while

Till ^zLebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?

^18aIn that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,

And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

^19bThe humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,

And ^cthe poor among men shall rejoice

In the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ⁵terrible one is brought to nothing,

^dThe scornful one is consumed,

And all who ^ewatch for iniquity are cut off—

²¹Who make a man an offender by a word,

And ^flay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,

And turn aside the just ^gby empty words.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, ^hwho redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall not now be ⁱashamed,

Nor shall his face now grow pale;

²³But when he sees his children,

^jThe work of My hands, in his midst,

They will hallow My name,

And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,

And fear the God of Israel.

²⁴These also ^kwho erred in spirit will come to understanding,

And those who complained will learn doctrine.”

Futile Confidence in Egypt

30“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,

^a“Who take counsel, but not of Me,

And who ¹devise plans, but not of My Spirit,

^bThat they may add sin to sin;

^2cWho walk to go down to Egypt,

And ^dhave not asked My advice,

To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,

And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

^3eTherefore the strength of Pharaoh

Shall be your shame,

And trust in the shadow of Egypt

Shall be your humiliation.

⁴For his princes were at ^fZoan,

And his ambassadors came to Hanes.

^5gThey were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them,

Or be help or benefit,

But a shame and also a reproach.”

^6hThe ²burden against the beasts of the South.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,

From which came the lioness and lion,

ⁱThe viper and fiery flying serpent,

They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys,

And their treasures on the humps of camels,

To a people who shall not profit;

^7jFor the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.

Therefore I have called her

³Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.

A Rebellious People

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

And note it on a scroll,

That it may be for time to come,

Forever and ever:

⁹That ^lthis is a rebellious people,

Lying children,

Children who will not hear the law of the Lord;

^10mWho say to the seers, “Do not see,”

And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;

ⁿSpeak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.

¹¹Get out of the way,

Turn aside from the path,

Cause the Holy One of Israel

To cease from before us.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:

“Because you ^odespise this word,

And trust in oppression and perversity,

And rely on them,

¹³Therefore this iniquity shall be to you

^pLike a breach ready to fall,

A bulge in a high wall,

Whose breaking ^qcomes suddenly, in an instant.

¹⁴And ^rHe shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,

Which is broken in pieces;

He shall not spare.

So there shall not be found among its fragments

⁴A shard to take fire from the hearth,

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