Isaiah 28
29 verses
Isaiah pronounces woes against the leaders and people of both Israel and Judah, condemning their pride and drunkenness and their false alliance with Egypt rather than trust in God. The oracle mocks the drunkards of Ephraim whose glorious beauty will fade like a flower withering in the heat of summer, establishing that human pride and material prosperity are temporary and subject to divine judgment. The passage criticizes the priests and prophets who are confused by wine and are unfaithful to their calling, establishing that even religious leaders have compromised covenant faithfulness. The prophecy announces that the Lord will establish a sure foundation in Zion—a stone that has been tested—upon which faithful belief will be established, introducing the promise of a righteous remnant and the foundation of renewed covenant. The oracle warns against making a covenant with death (Sheol) and with lies, suggesting that false security and reliance on deceptive practices invite judgment. The passage employs the image of a bed too short to stretch on and a blanket too narrow to cover, conveying the inadequacy and futility of human attempts at security and comfort apart from God. Yet within the message of judgment lies the promise of God's faithfulness and the establishment of a foundation in Zion upon which the righteous remnant will be established. Isaiah 28 demonstrates that authentic faith requires both recognition of human inadequacy and trust in God's gracious establishment of a sure foundation. The chapter establishes that judgment aims at the purification and renewal of covenant community through the removal of false confidence.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
0 0Open verse page →
2
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
0 0Open verse page →
3
The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
0 0Open verse page →
4
And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
0 0Open verse page →
5
In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
0 0Open verse page →
6
And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
0 0Open verse page →
7
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
0 0Open verse page →
8
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
0 0Open verse page →
9
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
0 0Open verse page →
10
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
0 0Open verse page →
11
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
0 0Open verse page →
12
To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
0 0Open verse page →
13
But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
0 0Open verse page →
14
Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
0 0Open verse page →
15
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
0 0Open verse page →
16
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
0 0Open verse page →
17
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
0 0Open verse page →
18
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
0 0Open verse page →
19
From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
0 0Open verse page →
20
For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
0 0Open verse page →
21
For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
0 0Open verse page →
22
Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
0 0Open verse page →
23
Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
0 0Open verse page →
24
Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
0 0Open verse page →
25
When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
0 0Open verse page →
26
For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
0 0Open verse page →
27
For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
0 0Open verse page →
28
Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
0 0Open verse page →
29
This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
0 0Open verse page →
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
No notes on this chapter yet. Be the first to write one!