Isaiah 28

1Woe to the proud garland of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the wilting blossom of its splendid beauty, set at the head of the fertile valley of those laid low by wine! 2Look, the Lord holds ready one who is mighty and powerful. Like a storm of hail and a wrecking wind, like a downpour of great waters that sweep all before them, he will dash it to the ground by force. 3The proud garland of Ephraim’s drunkards will be trodden underfoot. 4And the wilting blossom of its splendid beauty, set at the head of the fertile valley, will be like the first fig that ripens before summer: someone catches sight of it, and before it has left his hand, he has eaten it.

5On that day the LORD of Armies himself will be the splendid crown, the beautiful garland, worn by the survivors of his people, 6the spirit of justice in the one who presides over the court, and the strength of those who hurl the attack back at the gate.

7Yet these too sway with wine and lurch with beer. Priest and prophet sway with beer and are swallowed up by wine. They lurch from beer, sway as they see visions, and totter when they hand down a ruling. 8Every table is smeared with vomit; there is filth everywhere, and no clean place.

9Who does he imagine he is teaching? Who needs his lessons explained? Babies just off milk, newly taken from the breast? 10It is all tsav latsav, tsav latsav, qav laqav, qav laqav, a little here, a little there! 11Indeed, with halting speech and in a foreign language he will speak to this people, 12to whom he once said, “Here is rest: give the weary rest. Here is relief.” But they refused to hear it. 13So the word of the LORD will come to them as tsav latsav, tsav latsav, qav laqav, qav laqav, a little here, a little there, so that they will walk on and fall backward, broken, trapped, and taken captive.

14Now then, you men who sneer, you who govern this people in Jerusalem: listen to what the LORD says! 15For you have said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have a pact with Sheol. When the flooding whip sweeps through, it will not reach us, for we have taken shelter in a lie and hidden ourselves inside falsehood.”

16So the Lord GOD says this: Look, I have laid a stone in Zion as its foundation: a stone proven by testing, a valuable cornerstone, set deep and secure. The one who trusts will not rush in panic. 17Justice will be my measuring line, and righteousness my plumb line. Hail will sweep away the shelter of lies, and floodwaters will swamp the hiding place. 18Your covenant with death will be wiped out, and your pact with Sheol will fail. When the flooding whip sweeps through, it will trample you into the ground. 19Each time it comes through, it will seize you. It will come through every morning, by day and by night. When at last you grasp the message, it will be only terror. 20The bed is too short for anyone to stretch out on it, and the blanket too skimpy to wrap up in. 21As at Mount Perazim, the LORD will stand up; as in the valley near Gibeon, he will burst into fury, to do his deed, a strange deed, and to carry out his work, an alien work. 22Now then, give up your scoffing, or your chains will grip you harder. For I have heard from the Lord GOD of Armies of an end, complete and decreed, coming upon the whole land. 23Turn your ear and hear my voice; take note and listen to what I say. 24Does the farmer who plows to plant go on plowing all day long? Does he never stop breaking open and harrowing his soil? 25Once he has made the ground level, does he not scatter black cumin, sow cumin seed, set wheat in rows, barley in its marked plot, and spelt along the border? 26His God has trained him in the proper order of things and teaches him. 27No one threshes black cumin with a sledge or rolls cart wheels over cumin. Black cumin is knocked loose with a stick, and cumin with a rod. 28Grain for bread must be crushed, but no one keeps on threshing it endlessly. He drives the wheels of his cart and his horses over it, but he does not grind it to dust. 29This too comes from the LORD of Armies, whose counsel is a wonder and whose wisdom is great.