Isaiah 28:1-13 - Judgment Against The Leaders Of Ephraim

¹ How terrible it will be for that arrogant garland the drunks of Ephraim! How terrible it will be for that fading flower of his glorious beauty, which sits on the heads of people bloated with food, of people overcome with wine! ² Look! The LORD has one who is mighty and strong, like a hailstorm and destructive tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing water and he will give rest to the land. ³ With hands and feet, that proud garland those drunks of Ephraim will be trampled. ⁴ And that fading flower, his glorious beauty, which sits on the heads of people bloated with food, will be like an early fig before summer whenever someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it's in his hand. ⁵ At that time, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will become a glorious crown, a beautiful diadem for the remnant of his people, ⁶ and a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷ These people also stagger from wine and reel from strong drink. Priests and prophets stagger from strong drink; they're drunk from wine; they reel from strong drink, waver when seeing visions, and stumble when rendering decisions. ⁸ For all the tables are covered in vomit and filth, with no clean space left. ⁹ To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? To children just weaned from milk? To those just taken from the breast? ¹⁰ For it is: "Do this and do that, do this and do that, Line upon line, line upon line, a little here, a little there." ¹¹ Very well, then, through the mouths of foreigners and foreign languages the LORD will speak to this people ¹² to whom he said, "This is the resting place, so give rest to the weary"' and, "This is the place of repose" - but they would not listen.

¹³ So, then, the message from the LORD to them will become: "Do this and do that, do this and do that, line upon line, line upon line, a little here, a little there," so that they will go, but fall backward, and be injured, snared, and captured.