Isaiah 28

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁵ In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory,
    and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people;
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 reel with wine
    and stagger with strong drink;
the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
    they are confused with wine,
    they stagger with strong drink;
they err in vision,
    they stumble in giving judgment.
⁸ For all tables are full of vomit,
    no place is without filthiness.

⁹ “Whom will he teach knowledge,
    and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
    those taken from the breast?
¹⁰ For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
    line upon line, line upon line,
    here a little, there a little.”

¹¹ Nay, but by men of strange lips
    and with an alien tongue
the Lord will speak to this people,
¹²     to whom he has said,
“This is rest;
    give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”;
    yet they would not hear.
¹³ Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
    line upon line, line upon line,
    here a little, there a little;
that they may go, and fall backward,
    and be broken, and snared, and taken.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers,
    who rule this people in Jerusalem!
¹⁵ Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
    and with Sheol we have an agreement;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
    it will not come to us;
for we have made lies our refuge,
    and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
¹⁶ therefore thus says the Lord God,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation
    a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
    ‘He who believes will not be in haste.’
¹⁷ And I will make justice the line,
    and righteousness the plummet;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
    and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
¹⁸ Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
    and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
    you will be beaten down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it passes through it will take you;
    for morning by morning it will pass through,
    by day and by night;
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
²⁰ For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,
    and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.
²¹ For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Pera′zim,
    he will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon;
to do his deed—strange is his deed!
    and to work his work—alien is his work!
²² Now therefore do not scoff,
    lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
    from the Lord God of hosts upon the whole land.

²³ Give ear, and hear my voice;
    hearken, and hear my speech.
²⁴ Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
    does he continually open and harrow his ground?
²⁵ When he has leveled its surface,
    does he not scatter dill, sow cummin,
and put in wheat in rows
    and barley in its proper place,
    and spelt as the border?
²⁶ For he is instructed aright;
    his God teaches him.

²⁷ Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
    nor is a cart wheel rolled over cummin;
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
    and cummin with a rod.
²⁸ Does one crush bread grain?
    No, he does not thresh it for ever;
when he drives his cart wheel over it
    with his horses, he does not crush it.
²⁹ This also comes from the Lord of hosts;
    he is wonderful in counsel,
    and excellent in wisdom.