Isaiah 28-29

Isaiah 28

¹Ho! crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim, and the dead flower of his glory which is on the head of those who are overcome by strong drink!

²See, the Lord has a strong and cruel one; like a rain of ice, a storm of destruction, like the overflowing of a strong river, he will violently overcome them.

³The crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim will be crushed under foot;

⁴And the dead flower of his glory, which is on the head of the fertile valley, will be like the first early fruit before the summer; which a man takes and puts in his mouth the minute he sees it.

⁵In that day will the Lord of armies be a crown of glory, and a fair ornament, to the rest of his people;

⁶And a spirit of wisdom to the judge, and strength to those who keep back the attackers at the door of the town.

⁷And further, these are uncertain through wine, and have gone out of the right way through strong drink: the priest and the prophet are uncertain through strong drink, they are overcome by wine, they have gone out of the way through strong drink; their vision is false, they go wrong in their decisions.

⁸For all the tables are covered with coughed-up food, so that there is not a clean place.

⁹To whom will he give knowledge? and to whom will he make clear the word? Will it be to those who have newly given up milk, and who have only now been taken from the breast?

¹⁰For it is one rule after another; one line after another; here a little, there a little.

¹¹No, but with broken talk, and with a strange tongue, he will give his word to this people:

¹²To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him who is tired; and by this you may get new strength; but they would not give ear.

¹³For this cause the word of the Lord will be to them rule after rule, line after line, here a little, there a little; so that they may go on their way, and falling back may be broken, and taken in the net.

¹⁴Give ear then to the word of the Lord, you men of pride, the rulers of this people in Jerusalem:

¹⁵Because you have said, We have made death our friend, and with the underworld we have made an agreement; when the overflowing waters come through they will not come near us; for we are looking to false words for help, taking cover in what is untrue:

¹⁶For this cause says the Lord God, See, I am placing in Zion as a base, a stone, a tested stone, an angle-stone which is certain and of great value: and he who has faith will not give way.

¹⁷And I will make right decision the measuring-line, and righteousness the weight: and the ice-storm will take away the safe place of false words, and the secret place will be covered by the flowing waters.

¹⁸And the help you were looking for from death will come to nothing, and your agreement with the underworld will be broken; when the overflowing waters come through, then you will be overcome by them.

¹⁹Whenever they come through they will overtake you; for they will come through morning after morning, by day and by night: and the news will be nothing but fear.

²⁰For the bed is not long enough for a man to be stretched out on: and the cover is not wide enough for him to be covered with.

²¹For the Lord will come up as on Mount Perazim, he will be moved to wrath as in the valley of Gibeon; so that he may do his work — strange is his work; and give effect to his act — unnatural is his act.

²²And now, take care that you do not make sport of him, or your bands will be made strong; for I have had word from the Lord, the Lord of armies, of an end, of a complete end, which is to come on all the land.

²³Let your ears be open to my voice; give attention to what I say.

²⁴Is the ploughman for ever ploughing? does he not get the earth ready and broken up for the seed?

²⁵When the face of the earth has been levelled, does he not put in the different sorts of seed, and the grain in lines, and the barley in its place, and the spelt at the edge?

²⁶For his God is his teacher, giving him the knowledge of these things.

²⁷For the fitches are not crushed with a sharp instrument, and a cart-wheel is not rolled over the cummin; but the grain of the fitches is hammered out with a stick, and of the cummin with a rod.

²⁸Is the grain for bread crushed? He does not go on crushing it for ever, but he lets his cart-wheels and his horses go over it without crushing it.

²⁹This comes from the Lord of armies, purposing wonders, and wise in all his acts.

Isaiah 29

¹Ho! Ariel, Ariel, the town against which David made war; put year to year, let the feasts come round:

²And I will send trouble on Ariel, and there will be weeping and cries of grief; and she will be to me as Ariel.

³And I will make war on you like David, and you will be shut in by earthworks, and I will make towers round you.

⁴And you will be made low, and your voice will come out of the earth, and your words will be low out of the dust; and your voice will come out of the earth like that of a spirit, making bird-like noises out of the dust.

⁵And the army of your attackers will be like small dust, and all the cruel ones like dry stems gone before the wind; suddenly it will come about.

⁶The Lord of armies will come in with thunder and earth-shaking and great noise, with rushing wind and storm, and the flame of burning fire.

⁷And all the nations making war on Ariel, and all those who are fighting against her and shutting her in with their towers, will be like a dream, like a vision of the night.

⁸And it will be like a man desiring food, and dreaming that he is feasting; but when he is awake there is nothing in his mouth: or like a man in need of water, dreaming that he is drinking; but when he is awake he is feeble and his soul is full of desire: so will all the nations be which make war on Mount Zion.

⁹Be surprised and full of wonder; let your eyes be covered and be blind: be overcome, but not with wine; go with uncertain steps, but not because of strong drink.

¹⁰For the Lord has sent on you a spirit of deep sleep; and by him your eyes, the prophets, are shut, and your heads, the seers, are covered.

¹¹And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book which is shut, which men give to one who has knowledge of writing, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I am not able to, for the book is shut:

¹²And they give it to one without learning, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I have no knowledge of writing.

¹³And the Lord said, because this people come near to me with their mouths, and give honour to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is false, a rule given them by the teaching of men;

¹⁴For this cause I will again do a strange thing among this people, a thing to be wondered at: and the wisdom of their wise men will come to nothing, and the sense of their guides will no longer be seen.

¹⁵Cursed are those who go deep to keep their designs secret from the Lord, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, Who sees us? and who has knowledge of our acts?

¹⁶You are turning things upside down! Is the wet earth the same to you as the one who is forming it? will the thing made say of him who made it, He made me not: or the thing formed say of him who gave it form, He has no knowledge?

¹⁷In a very short time Lebanon will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will seem like a wood.

¹⁸And in that day those whose ears are stopped will be hearing the words of the book; and the eyes of the blind will see through the mist and the dark.

¹⁹And the poor will have their joy in the Lord increased, and those in need will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the cruel one has come to nothing; and those who make sport of the Lord are gone; and those who are watching to do evil are cut off:

²¹Who give help to a man in a wrong cause, and who put a net for the feet of him who gives decisions in the public place, taking away a man's right without cause.

²²For this reason the Lord, the saviour of Abraham, says about the family of Jacob, Jacob will not now be put to shame, or his face be clouded with fear.

²³But when they, the children of Jacob, see the work of my hands among them, they will give honour to my name; yes, they will give honour to the Holy One of Jacob, and go in fear of the God of Israel.

²⁴Those whose hearts were turned away from him will get knowledge, and those who made an outcry against him will give attention to his teaching.