Isaiah 28–30

Chapter 28

¹Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,

and to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!

²Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong;

like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,

like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters,

he will cast down to the earth with violence.

³The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim

will be trodden under foot;

⁴and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

which is on the head of the rich valley,

will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer:

when a man sees it, he eats it up

as soon as it is in his hand.

⁵In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory,

and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people;

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

and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷These also reel with wine

and stagger with strong drink;

the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,

they are confused with wine,

they stagger with strong drink;

they err in vision,

they stumble in giving judgment.

⁸For all tables are full of vomit,

no place is without filthiness.

⁹“Whom will he teach knowledge,

and to whom will he explain the message?

Those who are weaned from the milk,

those taken from the breast?

¹⁰For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

line upon line, line upon line,

here a little, there a little.”

¹¹Nay, but by men of strange lips

and with an alien tongue

the Lord will speak to this people,

¹²to whom he has said,

“This is rest;

give rest to the weary;

and this is repose”;

yet they would not hear.

¹³Therefore the word of the Lord

will be to them precept upon precept,

precept upon precept, line upon line,

line upon line,

here a little, there a little;

that they may go, and fall backward,

and be broken, and snared, and taken.

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.

²³Give ear, and hear my voice;

hearken, and hear my speech.

²⁴Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?

does he continually open and harrow his ground?

²⁵When he has leveled its surface,

does he not scatter dill, sow cummin,

and put in wheat in rows

and barley in its proper place,

and spelt as the border?

²⁶For he is instructed aright;

his God teaches him.

²⁷Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin;

but dill is beaten out with a stick,

and cummin with a rod.

²⁸Does one crush bread grain?

No, he does not thresh it for ever;

when he drives his cart wheel over it

with his horses, he does not crush it.

²⁹This also comes from the Lord of hosts;

he is wonderful in counsel,

and excellent in wisdom.

Chapter 29

¹Ho Ariel, Ariel,

the city where David encamped!

Add year to year;

let the feasts run their round.

²Yet I will distress Ariel,

and there shall be moaning and lamentation,

and she shall be to me like an Ariel.

³And I will encamp against you round about,

and will besiege you with

towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.

⁴Then deep from the earth you shall speak,

from low in the dust your words shall come;

your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,

and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust,

and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.

And in an instant, suddenly,

⁶you will be visited by the Lord of hosts

with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,

with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

⁷And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,

all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,

shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

⁸As when a hungry man dreams he is eating

and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,

or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking

and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,

so shall the multitude of all the nations be

that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor,

blind yourselves and be blind!

Be drunk, but not with wine;

stagger, but not with strong drink!

¹⁰For the Lord has poured out upon you

a spirit of deep sleep,

and has closed your eyes, the prophets,

and covered your heads, the seers.

¹¹And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” ¹²And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

¹³And the Lord said:

“Because this people draw near with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

while their hearts are far from me,

and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote;

¹⁴therefore, behold, I will again

do marvelous things with this people,

wonderful and marvelous;

and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid.”

¹⁵Woe to those who hide deep from the Lord their counsel,

whose deeds are in the dark,

and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

¹⁶You turn things upside down!

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay;

that the thing made should say of its maker,

“He did not make me”;

or the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while

until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

¹⁸In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book,

and out of their gloom and darkness

the eyes of the blind shall see.

¹⁹The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,

and the poor among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ruthless shall come to nought and the scoffer cease,

and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,

²¹who by a word make a man out to be an offender,

and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,

and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

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

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,

no more shall his face grow pale.

²³For when he sees his children,

the work of my hands,

in his midst, they will sanctify my name;

they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,

and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴And those who err in spirit will come to understanding,

and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

Chapter 30

¹“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,

“who carry out a plan, but not mine;

and who make a league, but not of my spirit,

that they may add sin to sin;

²who set out to go down to Egypt,

without asking for my counsel,

to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh,

and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

³Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,

and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

⁴For though his officials are at Zoan

and his envoys reach Hanes,

⁵every one comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them,

that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”

⁶An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,

from where come the lioness and the lion,

the viper and the flying serpent,

they carry their riches on the backs of asses,

and their treasures on the humps of camels,

to a people that cannot profit them.

⁷For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty,

therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”

⁸And now, go, write it before them on a tablet,

and inscribe it in a book,

that it may be for the time to come

as a witness for ever.

⁹For they are a rebellious people,

lying sons,

sons who will not hear

the instruction of the Lord;

¹⁰who say to the seers, “See not”;

and to the prophets, “Prophesy not to us what is right;

speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,

¹¹leave the way, turn aside from the path,

let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,

“Because you despise this word,

and trust in oppression and perverseness,

and rely on them;

¹³therefore this iniquity shall be to you

like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,

whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;

¹⁴and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel

which is smashed so ruthlessly

that among its fragments not a sherd is found

with which to take fire from the hearth,

or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

¹⁵For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

And you would not, ¹⁶but you said,

“No! We will speed upon horses,”

therefore you shall speed away;

and,…