Isaiah 28: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Isaiah announces ruin for the proud "crown" of the drunkards of Ephraim, and says the LORD of Armies will himself be the crown for the remnant of his people. He turns to the priests, prophets, and rulers in Jerusalem, who mock his teaching as baby talk and who boast of a deal with death that will protect them from the coming flood of punishment; God answers that he is laying a tested cornerstone in Zion, that justice will be the measuring line, and that their deal will be canceled. The chapter closes with a picture drawn from farming: a farmer plows, sows, and threshes each crop in its own way and for a limited time, and this skill also comes from the LORD of Armies.

Claim by Claim

1. 28:1
   • A woe is pronounced against the proud crown of Ephraim's drunkards.
   • The glorious beauty of Ephraim is a fading flower.
   • That crown and flower stand at the head of a fertile valley.
   • The people of that place are overcome with wine.
2. 28:2
   • The Lord has one who is mighty and strong.
   • That one is like a storm of hail and a destroying tempest.
   • That one is like a flood of mighty overflowing waters.
   • He will cast that crown down to the ground with force.
3. 28:3
   • The proud crown of Ephraim's drunkards will be trampled underfoot.
4. 28:4
   • The fading flower of Ephraim's glorious beauty stands at the head of the fertile valley.
   • The fading flower will be like an early ripe fig before the summer harvest.
   • Whoever sees the early fig takes it.
   • He swallows it while it is still in his hand.
5. 28:5
   • On that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory to the remnant of his people.
   • On that day the LORD of hosts will be a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people.
6. 28:6
   • The LORD will be a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment.
   • The LORD will be strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7. 28:7
   • These also have gone astray through wine.
   • They stagger through strong drink.
   • The priest and the prophet have gone astray through strong drink.
   • They are swallowed up by wine.
   • They stagger through strong drink.
   • They err in vision.
   • They stumble in giving judgment.
8. 28:8
   • All the tables are full of vomit and filth.
   • There is no place free of it.
9. 28:9
   • It is asked whom he will teach knowledge.
   • It is asked to whom he will explain the message.
   • The answer given is: those weaned from milk and taken from the breast.
10. 28:10
    • The instruction comes as precept upon precept, precept upon precept.
    • The instruction comes as line upon line, line upon line.
    • The instruction comes a little here and a little there.
11. 28:11
    • He will speak to this people with stammering lips.
    • He will speak to this people with a foreign tongue.
12. 28:12
    • He said to them that this is the rest.
    • He told them to give rest to the weary.
    • He said that this is the place of repose.
    • They were not willing to listen.
13. 28:13
    • The word of the LORD became to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept.
    • The word of the LORD became to them line upon line, line upon line.
    • The word of the LORD became to them a little here and a little there.
    • The result is that they go and fall backward.
    • They are broken.
    • They are snared.
    • They are captured.
14. 28:14
    • The scornful men are commanded to hear the word of the LORD.
    • The men addressed are scoffers.
    • These men rule this people.
    • This people is in Jerusalem.
15. 28:15
    • They said they have cut a covenant with death.
    • They said they have made an agreement with Sheol.
    • They said the overflowing scourge will not come to them when it passes through.
    • They said they have made lies their refuge.
    • They said they have hidden themselves in falsehood.
16. 28:16
    • The Lord GOD speaks what follows.
    • He is laying a stone as a foundation in Zion.
    • The stone is a tested stone.
    • The stone is a precious cornerstone.
    • The stone is a sure foundation.
    • The one who believes will not be in haste.
17. 28:17
    • The LORD will make justice the measuring line.
    • The LORD will make righteousness the plummet.
    • Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies.
    • Waters will overflow the hiding place.
18. 28:18
    • Their covenant with death will be annulled.
    • Their agreement with Sheol will not stand.
    • The overflowing scourge will pass through.
    • They will be trampled down by it.
19. 28:19
    • Every time it passes through it will seize them.
    • It will pass through morning after morning.
    • It will pass through by day and by night.
    • Understanding the message will be nothing but terror.
20. 28:20
    • The bed is too short to stretch out on.
    • The covering is too narrow to wrap oneself in.
21. 28:21
    • The LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim.
    • He will be roused to anger as in the valley of Gibeon.
    • He will do his work.
    • His work is strange.
    • He will perform his task.
    • His task is alien.
22. 28:22
    • They are commanded not to mock.
    • If they mock, their bonds will be made stronger.
    • The speaker has heard something from the Lord GOD of hosts.
    • What he heard is a destruction that is decreed upon the whole land, or upon the whole earth.
23. 28:23
    • The hearers are told to give ear and hear the speaker's voice.
    • The hearers are told to pay attention and hear the speaker's words.
24. 28:24
    • It is asked whether the plowman plows all day in order to sow.
    • It is asked whether he keeps opening and harrowing his ground.
25. 28:25
    • The plowman levels the surface of the ground.
    • He then scatters black cumin.
    • He scatters cumin.
    • He puts wheat in rows.
    • He puts barley in its appointed place.
    • He puts spelt at its border.
26. 28:26
    • His God instructs him in the right way.
    • His God teaches him.
27. 28:27
    • Black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge.
    • A cart wheel is not rolled over cumin.
    • Black cumin is beaten out with a stick.
    • Cumin is beaten out with a rod.
28. 28:28
    • Grain for bread is crushed.
    • He does not go on threshing it forever.
    • The wheel of his cart does not crush it.
    • His horses do not crush it.
29. 28:29
    • This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts.
    • He is wonderful in counsel.
    • He is excellent in sound wisdom.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

28:1

Ephraim was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom of Israel, and its name is used here for that whole kingdom. Its capital, Samaria, stood on a hill ringed by walls and looking out over a fertile valley, the "crown" set above the valley. Garlands of flowers were also worn on the head at drinking feasts, which is why the crown here is a flower that wilts.

28:2

The strong and mighty one is not named. Isaiah's hearers would have understood the coming army of Assyria, the empire that destroyed Samaria in 722 BC.

28:4

The first figs of the season ripened weeks ahead of the main crop and were a prized delicacy. The point of the comparison is speed: such a fig was eaten on the spot, not stored.

28:5

"LORD of Armies" translates the Hebrew title usually printed as "LORD of hosts." The "hosts" are massed ranks, armies, and the ranked powers of heaven.

28:6

The gate was the one deliberate gap in a city's wall and so the point an attacking force aimed at. It was also where judges sat and cases were heard, which is why judging and defending the gate appear in the same verse.

28:7

"Strong drink" translates a Hebrew word for fermented drink made from something other than grapes, barley beer, or drink made from dates or other fruit. Priests were forbidden to drink it before serving at the sanctuary, and a prophet's "vision" was the message he was supposed to be receiving clearly.

28:9

Verses 9 and 10 are most likely the drunken priests and prophets mimicking Isaiah, complaining that he lectures them as though they were toddlers.

28:10

In Hebrew this is two short syllables repeated (*tsav latsav, tsav laqav; qav laqav, qav laqav*) a jingle that sounds like baby talk or gibberish. The words can mean "rule" and "measuring line," but the sound is the point: what the prophet says strikes the mockers as meaningless noise. When the line comes back in verse 13, the noise has become their sentence.

28:11

The foreign language is the speech of an invading army, Assyrian. Having to take your orders in a tongue you cannot understand was a standard image of conquest.

28:12

The "rest" God offered was a safe, settled life in their own land instead of endless deals with powerful empires.

28:13

The same mocking nonsense they threw at Isaiah now comes back at them as God's message to them.

28:14

The address turns from the northern kingdom to the rulers of Jerusalem, capital of the southern kingdom of Judah, who were watching the north fall and had learned nothing from it.

28:15

"The place of the dead" is Sheol, the underworld where the Hebrew Bible pictures all the dead going, without distinction of reward. A "covenant" was a binding treaty sworn with oaths and rituals; making one with death and Sheol is bitter irony, and may also glance at the political treaty Judah's leaders were negotiating with Egypt for protection against Assyria.

28:16

Zion was the hill in Jerusalem on which the temple stood, and the name stands for the city itself. A cornerstone was the first block set at the corner of a foundation; every wall was aligned from it, so a badly cut cornerstone threw the whole building out of true. "Tested" means proved sound before being laid. The last phrase is difficult in Hebrew: it says literally "will not hurry," which can mean will not panic, or will not be shaken, or will not need to run.

28:17

A measuring line and a plumb line (a weight on a cord) were the builder's tools for checking that a wall ran straight and stood upright. The image continues from the cornerstone in the previous verse: justice and right living are the standards the building is checked against.

28:20

A proverb, quoted rather than invented here, the picture of a makeshift arrangement that cannot possibly do the job it is supposed to do.

28:21

Two remembered victories. At Mount Perazim (also called Baal-perazim) David broke through the Philistine army "like a bursting flood," and in the valley near Gibeon Israel's enemies were routed in a battle of hailstones and panic. The shock is that the same overwhelming force is now turned against God's own people, which is what makes the work "strange."

28:22

The chains are a prisoner's shackles. The Hebrew word translated "land" can also mean "the earth," so it is genuinely unclear whether the decree covers the territory of Judah or the whole world.

28:24

To plow is to cut long lines in the dirt with a sharp blade. Animals pull it along. A farmer plows before planting, but he does not plow forever.

28:25

These are the small seed crops of a Palestinian farm. "Caraway" renders a word for black cumin or nigella, whose tiny seeds were used as a spice; cumin is another seed spice. Both were sown broadcast by hand, while the grain crops were put in ordered rows and plots, different crops, different handling.

28:27

A threshing sledge was a heavy wooden board studded underneath with stone or iron teeth, dragged over spread grain by animals to break the husks off. Running it over delicate spice seeds would pulverize them, so those were beaten out by hand with a stick.

28:28

Grain for bread is tougher and takes a heavier treatment (a sledge, or a cart wheel rolled over it) but even that is stopped before the grain itself is crushed to powder. The Hebrew of the last clause is uncertain; it may say the horses do not grind it, or that the driver does not keep driving them over it.