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

¹ Woe to the proud drunks who wear the crown of Ephraim for it is doomed! Its glory is fading like the crowns of flowers on their heads. They are at the entrance of a fertile valley. They are drunk from wine. ² Behold, Jehovah has a strong and mighty one (Assyria). He will cast down to the earth with military power. It will be like a destructive thunderstorm with hail and a mighty flood of water. ³ The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under foot. ⁴ The fading flower of his glorious beauty is found at the head of the fertile valley. He looks at the first-ripe fig before the summer. He picks it with his hand and eats it. ⁵ Jehovah of armies will then become a crown of glory and beauty to the remnant of his people. ⁶ He will be a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who repel the attack at the gate.

⁷ These also stagger from wine and reel from beer. Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine. They reel from beer. They stagger when seeing visions. They stumble when rendering decisions. ⁸ The tables are covered with vomit and there is no spot without filth. ⁹ Who is he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? ¹⁰ For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. ¹¹ With stammering lips and another tongue he will speak to this people. ¹² He said: This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest, and, this is the refreshing. Yet they would not listen.

¹³ But the word of Jehovah to them was: Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.