Isaiah 28:9-16

English Standard Version

⁹^(A)“To 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?
¹⁰For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
    line upon line, line upon line,
    here a little, there a little.”

¹¹^(B)For by people of strange lips
    and with a foreign tongue
the Lord will speak to this people,
¹²    to whom he has said,
^(C)“This is rest;
    give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”;
    yet they would not hear.
¹³And 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,
^(D)that they may go, and fall backward,
    and be broken, and snared, and taken.

A Cornerstone in Zion

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you ^(E)scoffers,
    who rule this people in Jerusalem!
¹⁵Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
    and with Sheol we have an agreement,
when the ^(F)overwhelming whip passes through
    it will not come to us,
for we have made ^(G)lies our refuge,
    and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord God,
^(H)“Behold, I am the one who has laid^[a] as a foundation ^(I)in Zion,
    a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
    ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’