Isaiah 28 | New International Reader’s Version

New International Reader’s Version

The Lord will judge the leaders of Ephraim and Judah

1 How terrible it will be for the city of Samaria! It sits on a hill like a wreath of flowers. The leaders of Ephraim are drunk. They take pride in their city. It sits above a valley that has rich soil. How terrible it will be for the glorious beauty of that fading flower! 2 The Lord will bring the strong and powerful king of Assyria against Samaria. The Lord will throw that city down to the ground with great force. It will be like a hailstorm. It will be like a wind that destroys everything. It will be like a driving rain and a flooding storm. 3 That city is like a wreath. The leaders of Ephraim are drunk. They take pride in their city. But its enemies will walk all over it. 4 It sits on a hill above a rich valley. The city is like a wreath of flowers whose glorious beauty is fading away. But it will become like figs that are ripe before harvest. As soon as people see them, they pick them and swallow them. 5 At that time the LORD who rules over all will be like a glorious crown. He will be like a beautiful wreath for those of his people who will be left alive. 6 He will help those who are fair when they judge. He will give strength to those who turn back their enemies at the city gate. 7 Israel’s leaders are drunk from wine. They can’t walk straight. They are drunk from beer. They are unsteady on their feet. Priests and prophets drink beer. They can’t walk straight. They are mixed up from drinking too much wine. They drink too much beer. They are unsteady on their feet. The prophets see visions but don’t really understand them. The priests aren’t able to make good decisions. 8 They throw up. All the tables are covered with the mess they’ve made. There isn’t one spot on the tables that isn’t smelly and dirty. 9 The LORD’s people are making fun of him. They say, ‘Who does he think he’s trying to teach? Who does he think he’s explaining his message to? Is it to children who do not need their mother’s milk anymore? Is it to those who have just been taken from her breast? 10 Here is how he teaches. Do this and do that. There is a rule for this and a rule for that. Learn a little here and learn a little there.’ 11 All right then, these people won’t listen to me. So God will speak to them. He will speak by using people who speak unfamiliar languages. He will speak by using the mouths of strangers. 12 He said to his people, ‘I am offering you a resting place. Let those who are tired rest.’ He continued, ‘I am offering you a place of peace and quiet.’ But they wouldn’t listen. 13 So then, here is what the LORD’s message will become to them. Do this and do that. There is a rule for this and a rule for that. Learn a little here and learn a little there. So when they try to go forward, they’ll fall back and be wounded. They’ll be trapped and captured. 14 Listen to the LORD’s message, you who make fun of the truth. Listen, you who rule over these people in Jerusalem. 15 You boast, ‘We have entered into a covenant with the place of the dead. We have made an agreement with the grave. When a terrible plague comes to punish us, it can’t touch us. That’s because we depend on lies to keep us safe. We hide behind what isn’t true.’ 16 So the LORD and King speaks. He says, ‘Look! I am laying a stone in Zion. It is a stone that has been tested. It is the most important stone for a firm foundation. The one who depends on that stone will never be shaken. 17 I will use a measuring line to prove that you have not been fair. I will use a plumb line to prove that you have not done what is right. Hail will sweep away the lies you depend on to keep you safe. Water will flood your hiding place. 18 Your covenant with death will be called off. The agreement you made with the place of the dead will not stand. When the terrible plague comes to punish you, you will be struck down by it. 19 As often as it comes, it will carry you away. Morning after morning, day and night, it will come to punish you.’ If you understand this message, it will bring you absolute terror. 20 You will be like someone whose bed is too short to lie down on. You will be like those whose blankets are too small to wrap themselves in. 21 The LORD will rise up to judge, just as he did at Mount Perazim. He will get up to act, just as he did in the Valley of Gibeon. He’ll do his work, but it will be strange work. He’ll carry out his task, but it will be an unexpected one. 22 Now stop making fun of me. If you don’t, your chains will become heavier. The LORD who rules over all has spoken to me. The Lord has told me he has ordered that the whole land be destroyed. 23 Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention to what I’m saying. 24 When a farmer ploughs in order to plant, does he plough without stopping? Does he keep on breaking up the soil and making the field level? 25 When he’s made the surface even, doesn’t he plant caraway seeds? Doesn’t he scatter cummin seeds? Doesn’t he plant wheat in its proper place? Doesn’t he plant barley where it belongs? Doesn’t he plant spelt along the edge of the field? 26 His God directs him. He teaches him the right way to do his work. 27 Caraway seeds are beaten out with a rod. They aren’t separated out under a threshing sled. Cummin seeds are beaten out with a stick. The cartwheel isn’t rolled over them. 28 Corn must be ground up to make bread. A farmer separates it out. But he doesn’t go on doing it for ever. He drives the wheels of a threshing cart over it. But he doesn’t use horses to grind the corn. 29 All these insights come from the LORD who rules over all. His advice is wonderful. His wisdom is glorious.

English Standard Version

Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem

1 Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine! (Ho 7:5) 2 Behold, 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 casts down to the earth with his hand. (Isa 8:7; Isa 28:15; Isa 28:18) 3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot; (Isa 28:1) 4 and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig^[1] before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand. (Ho 9:10; Am 8:1; Mic 7:1) 5 In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory,^[2] and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people, (Isa 2:11) 6 and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. (1Ki 3:28; Isa 38:6) 7 These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by^[3] wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment. (Isa 3:12; Isa 9:15; Isa 56:10; Isa 56:12; Ho 4:11)

Isa 3:12Isa 9:15Isa 56:10Isa 56:12Ho 4:11

8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left. 9 “To 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? (Jer 6:10) 10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” 11 For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, (Isa 5:26; 1Co 14:21) 12 to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. (Isa 30:15; Mt 11:28) 13 And 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. (Isa 8:15)

A Cornerstone in Zion

14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! (Isa 28:22; Isa 29:20) 15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; (Isa 8:7; Isa 28:2; Isa 28:18; Ro 1:25)

Isa 8:7Isa 28:2Isa 28:18Ro 1:25

16 therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid^[4] as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ (Ps 118:22; Isa 14:32; Mt 21:42; Ac 4:11; Ro 9:33; 1Pe 2:6)

Ps 118:22Isa 14:32Mt 21:42Ac 4:11Ro 9:331Pe 2:6

17 And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” (2Ki 21:13) 18 Then 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. (Isa 28:15) 19 As 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. (2Ch 32:18; Isa 50:4) 20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in. 21 For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work! (Jos 9:3; Jos 10:10; 2Sa 5:20; 1Ch 14:11; 1Ch 14:16)

Jos 9:3Jos 10:102Sa 5:201Ch 14:111Ch 14:16

22 Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land. (Isa 10:23; Isa 28:14) 23 Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. 24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? 25 When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer^[5] as the border? (Isa 55:10) 26 For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. (Isa 21:10) 27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. 28 Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever;^[6] when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. 29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom. (Isa 9:6; Jer 32:19)