Isaiah · Majority Standard Bible
Isaiah 28 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower of his glorious splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, the pride of those overcome by wine.
1 Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has one who is strong and mighty. Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest, like a driving rain or flooding downpour, he will smash that crown to the ground.
2 Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.
3 The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards will be trampled underfoot.
3 The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.
4 The fading flower of his beautiful splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest: Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.
4 The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer, which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.
5 On that day the LORD of Hosts will be a crown of glory, a diadem of splendor to the remnant of His people,
5 In that day, Yahweh of Armies will become a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the residue of his people,
6 a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and a strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.
6 and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
7 They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.
8 For all their tables are covered with vomit; there is not a place without filth.
8 For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.
9 Whom is He trying to teach? To whom is He explaining His message? To infants just weaned from milk? To babies removed from the breast?
9 Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?
10 For they hear: “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there.”
10 For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.
11 Indeed, with mocking lips and foreign tongues, He will speak to this people
11 But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language,
12 to whom He has said: “This is the place of rest, let the weary rest; this is the place of repose.” But they would not listen.
12 to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to the weary,” and “This is the refreshing;” yet they would not hear.
13 Then the word of the LORD to them will become: “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there,” so that they will go stumbling backward and will be injured, ensnared, and captured.
13 Therefore Yahweh’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.
14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.
14 Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:
15 For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”
15 “Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’”
16 So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.
16 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.
17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.
17 I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be trampled by it.
18 Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.
19 As often as it passes through, it will carry you away; it will sweep through morning after morning, by day and by night.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.
19 As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.”
20 Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too small to wrap around you.
20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.
21 For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.
21 For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.
22 So now, do not mock, or your shackles will become heavier. Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hosts a decree of destruction against the whole land.
22 Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.
23 Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I say.
23 Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!
24 Does the plowman plow for planting every day? Does he continuously loosen and harrow the soil?
24 Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?
25 When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, and rye within its border.
25 When he has leveled its surface, doesn’t he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?
26 For his God instructs and teaches him properly.
26 For his God instructs him in right judgment and teaches him.
27 Surely caraway is not threshed with a sledge, and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin. But caraway is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.
27 For the dill isn’t threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.
28 Grain for bread must be ground, but it is not endlessly threshed. Though the wheels of the cart roll over it, the horses do not crush it.
28 Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don’t grind it.
29 This also comes from the LORD of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.
29 This also comes out from Yahweh of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.
Cross references (29)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Hosea 7:5; Isaiah 28:7; Isaiah 28:3–4; 2 Kings 14:25–27; Isaiah 5:22
- 2 Isaiah 30:30; Ezekiel 13:11; Nahum 1:8; Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 29:6
- 3 Isaiah 26:6; Hebrews 10:29; Isaiah 28:1; Daniel 8:13; Revelation 11:2
- 4 Nahum 3:12; Micah 7:1; Hosea 6:4; Isaiah 28:1; Psalm 73:19–20
- 5 1 Peter 5:4; Isaiah 62:3; Isaiah 60:19; Romans 11:5–6; Psalm 90:16–17
- 6 Psalm 18:32–34; John 5:30; Numbers 11:16–17; Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 11:2–4
- 7 Isaiah 56:10–12; Luke 21:34; Micah 2:11; Isaiah 19:14; Ecclesiastes 10:17
- 8 Jeremiah 48:26; Proverbs 26:11; Habakkuk 2:15–16
- 9 Psalm 131:2; Jeremiah 6:10; John 12:38; Matthew 11:25; Matthew 21:15–16
- 10 Isaiah 28:13; 2 Timothy 3:7; Jeremiah 11:7; Jeremiah 25:3–7; Nehemiah 9:29–30
- 11 1 Corinthians 14:21; Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 5:15; Isaiah 33:19
- 12 Matthew 11:28–29; Isaiah 30:15; Jeremiah 6:16; Isaiah 11:10; Jeremiah 44:16
- 13 Matthew 13:14; Isaiah 6:9–10; 2 Peter 3:16; Isaiah 28:10; Isaiah 8:14–15
- 14 Isaiah 28:22; Isaiah 1:10; Isaiah 29:20; Acts 13:41; Hosea 7:5
- 15 Isaiah 8:7–8; Hosea 2:18; Daniel 11:22; Ecclesiastes 8:8; Jeremiah 5:31
- 16 Psalm 118:22; Acts 4:11–12; 1 Peter 2:6–8; Luke 20:17–18; Romans 9:33
- 17 2 Kings 21:13; Revelation 16:21; Amos 7:7–9; Romans 2:5; Romans 2:2
- 18 Isaiah 7:7; Isaiah 8:10; Isaiah 28:15; Malachi 4:1–3; Isaiah 28:3
- 19 Habakkuk 3:16; Jeremiah 19:3; Isaiah 33:7; Daniel 8:27; 2 Kings 24:2
- 20 1 Corinthians 1:18–31; Isaiah 64:6; Romans 9:30–32; Jeremiah 7:8–10; Isaiah 59:5–6
- 21 1 Chronicles 14:11; Joshua 10:12; 2 Samuel 5:20; Joshua 10:10; 2 Samuel 5:25
- 22 Isaiah 10:22–23; Isaiah 24:1–23; Luke 21:24; Lamentations 1:14; Jeremiah 15:17
- 23 Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 22:29; Deuteronomy 32:1; Revelation 2:14; Revelation 2:11
- 24 Hosea 10:11–12; Jeremiah 4:3
- 25 Ezekiel 4:9; Matthew 23:23; Exodus 9:31–32
- 26 Exodus 36:2; Exodus 31:3–6; James 1:17; Job 35:11; Psalm 144:1
- 27 Isaiah 41:15; Isaiah 27:7–8; Jeremiah 10:24; Jeremiah 46:28; 2 Kings 13:7
- 28 Amos 9:9; Isaiah 21:10; Matthew 13:37–43; Matthew 3:12; 1 Corinthians 3:9
- 29 Romans 11:33; Job 5:9; Jeremiah 32:19; Isaiah 9:6; Psalm 92:5
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Wherefore also Isaiah says: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I deposit in the foundations of Zion a stone, precious, elect, the chief, the corner-one, to be had in honour." So, then, we understand that His advent in human nature was not by the will of a man, but by the will of God.
… slavery, and through that astonishment was going on to a desire of trying it, and from it to the trial itself, and thence, perchance, to fall into that bondage whereat he was so astonished, seeing he was ready to enter into "a covenant with death;" and he that loves danger shall fall into it.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
He is called a Stone, not a lifeless stone, cut out by men's hands, but a chief corner-stone, on whom whosoever believeth shall not be put to shame.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
Since then these things are so, and we have broken up for ourselves the fallows of Divinity, so as not to sow upon thorns, and have made plain the face of the ground, being moulded and moulding others by Holy Scripture...let us now enter upon Theological questions, setting at the head thereof the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
"Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded." Why anointed?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)