Isaiah 28:23–39:8

Listen to the Teaching of God

23 Give ear and hear my voice,

Listen and hear my speech.

24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?

Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?

25 When 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?

26 For He instructs him in right judgment,

His God teaches him.

27 For 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.

28 Bread flour must be ground;

Therefore he does not thresh it forever,

Break it with his cartwheel,

Or crush it with his horsemen.

29 This 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.

2 Yet I will distress Ariel;

There shall be heaviness and sorrow,

And it shall be to Me as Ariel.

3 I will encamp against you all around,

I will lay siege against you with a mound,

And I will raise siegeworks against you.

4 You 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.

6 gYou 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.

7 iThe 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.

8 kIt 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

9 Pause and wonder!

Blind yourselves and be blind!

lThey are drunk, mbut not with wine;

They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.

10 For 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.

11 The 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.”

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

And he says, “I am not literate.”

13 Therefore 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,

14 uTherefore, 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.”

15 wWoe 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?”

16 Surely 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

17 Is 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?

18 aIn 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.

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

And cthe poor among men shall rejoice

In the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the 5terrible one is brought to nothing,

dThe scornful one is consumed,

And all who ewatch for iniquity are cut off—

21 Who 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.

22 Therefore 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;

23 But 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.

24 These 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;

2 cWho 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!

3 eTherefore the strength of Pharaoh

Shall be your shame,

And trust in the shadow of Egypt

Shall be your humiliation.

4 For his princes were at fZoan,

And his ambassadors came to Hanes.

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

Or be help or benefit,

But a shame and also a reproach.”

6 hThe 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;

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

Therefore I have called her

3Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.

A Rebellious People

8 Now 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:

9 That lthis is a rebellious people,

Lying children,

Children who will not hear the law of the Lord;

10 mWho 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.

11 Get out of the way,

Turn aside from the path,

Cause the Holy One of Israel

To cease from before us.”

12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:

“Because you odespise this word,

And trust in oppression and perversity,

And rely on them,

13 Therefore 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.

14 And 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,

Or to take water from the cistern.”

15 For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

s“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

tBut you would not,

16 And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—

Therefore you shall flee!

And, “We will ride on swift horses”—

Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!

17 uOne thousand shall flee at the threat of one,

At the threat of five you shall flee,

Till you are left as a 5pole on top of a mountain

And as a banner on a hill.

God Will Be Gracious

18 Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be vgracious to you;

And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

wBlessed are all those who xwait for Him.

19 For the people yshall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem;

You shall zweep no more.

He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry;

When He hears it, He will aanswer you.

20 And though the Lord gives you

bThe bread of adversity and the water of 6affliction,

Yet cyour teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,

But your eyes shall see your teachers.

21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,

“This is the way, walk in it,”

Whenever you dturn to the right hand

Or whenever you turn to the left.

22 eYou will also defile the covering of your images of silver,

And the ornament of your molded images of gold.

You will throw them away as an unclean thing;

fYou will say to them, “Get away!”

23 gThen He will give the rain for your seed

With which you sow the ground,

And bread of the increase of the earth;

It will be 7fat and plentiful.

In that day your cattle will feed

In large pastures.

24 Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground

Will eat cured fodder,

Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.

25 There will be hon every high mountain

And on every high hill

Rivers and streams of waters,

In the day of the igreat slaughter,

When the towers fall.

26 Moreover jthe light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,

And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,

As the light of seven days,

In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people

And heals the stroke of their wound.

Judgment on Assyria

27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,

Burning with His anger,

And His burden is heavy;

His lips are full of indignation,

And His tongue like a devouring fire.

28 kHis breath is like an overflowing stream,

lWhich reaches up to the neck,

To sift the nations with the sieve of futility;

And there shall be ma bridle in the jaws of the people,

Causing them to err.

29 You shall have a song

As in the night when a holy festival is kept,

And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute,

To come into nthe mountain of the Lord,

To 8the Mighty One of Israel.

30 oThe Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard,

And show the descent of His arm,

With the indignation of His anger

And the flame of a devouring fire,

With scattering, tempest, pand hailstones.

31 For qthrough the voice of the Lord

Assyria will be 9beaten down,

As He strikes with the rrod.

32 And in every place where the staff of punishment passes,

Which the Lord lays on him,

It will be with tambourines and harps;

And in battles of sbrandishing He will fight with it.

33 tFor Tophet was established of old,

Yes, for the king it is prepared.

He has made it deep and large;

Its pyre is fire with much wood;

The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,

Kindles it.

The Folly of Not Trusting God

31 Woe to those awho go …