Isaiah 28:14–22

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers,

who rule this people in Jerusalem!

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

and with Sheol we have an agreement;

when the overwhelming scourge passes through

it will not come to us;

for we have made lies our refuge,

and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;

¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord GOD,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation

a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:

‘He who believes will not be in haste.’

¹⁷And I will make justice the line,

and righteousness the plummet;

and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,

and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”

¹⁸Then your covenant with death will be annulled,

and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;

when the overwhelming scourge passes through

you will be beaten down by it.

¹⁹As often as it passes through it will take you;

for morning by morning it will pass through,

by day and by night;

and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.

²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,

and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.

²¹For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim,

he will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon;

to do his deed—strange is his deed!

and to work his work—alien is his work!

²²Now therefore do not scoff,

lest your bonds be made strong;

for I have heard a decree of destruction

from the Lord GOD of hosts upon the whole land.