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Ah, what contrast to the drunken and bumbling priests and prophets
    who can’t even see straight, whose minds are addled,
Whose steps wobble, whose visions mislead,
    whose judgments waver, because of all their drinking.
There’s vomit on all of the tables,
    filth all over the place.
The priests and prophets mock:
    “Who is left for God to instruct in knowledge?
    Who will listen and understand His message?
Maybe those infants just weaned off of milk,
    those innocents just taken from the breast?
10 For here is how it goes: Command after command. Command on top of command.
    Rule after rule. Rule on top of rule. A little here, A little there.”
11 For now that God’s people reject His message,
    He will speak to them through the stammering lips
And foreign language of an invader.[a]

Eternal One: 12 This is the way: here is rest for the weary.
        I am showing you rest.

But they wouldn’t listen to Him.[b]
13 And so the word of the Eternal One to them will be just as they said:
    “Command after command. Command on top of command.
Rule after rule. Rule on top of rule. A little here, a little there.”
    But they’ll go and fail. They’ll fall back, broken and trapped,
    and be taken away by another people.

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And these also stagger(A) from wine(B)
    and reel(C) from beer:
Priests(D) and prophets(E) stagger from beer
    and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
    they stagger when seeing visions,(F)
    they stumble when rendering decisions.
All the tables are covered with vomit(G)
    and there is not a spot without filth.

“Who is it he is trying to teach?(H)
    To whom is he explaining his message?(I)
To children weaned(J) from their milk,(K)
    to those just taken from the breast?
10 For it is:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that[a];
    a little here, a little there.(L)

11 Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues(M)
    God will speak to this people,(N)
12 to whom he said,
    “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;(O)
and, “This is the place of repose”—
    but they would not listen.
13 So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there(P)
so that as they go they will fall backward;
    they will be injured(Q) and snared and captured.(R)

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 28:10 Hebrew / sav lasav sav lasav / kav lakav kav lakav (probably meaningless sounds mimicking the prophet’s words); also in verse 13