Isaiah 28 Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine! ² See, the Lord has a strong and cruel one; like a rain of ice, a storm of destruction, like the overflowing of a strong river, he will violently overcome them. ³ The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trampled under foot; ⁴ The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it. ⁵ In that day the LORD Almighty shall become a stately crown, and a beauteous chaplet 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 rule is on rule, rule on rule, line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there, ¹¹ For with stammering lips and a strange tongue will he speak to this people; ¹² to whom he said, "This is the resting place. Give rest to weary;" and "This is the refreshing;" but they would not listen. ¹³ And to whom a word of the LORD hath been, Rule on rule, rule on rule, line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there, So that they go and have stumbled backward, And been broken, and snared, and captured. ¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: ¹⁵ Because ye have said, “We have entered into a covenant with death, and with the nether world have we made an agreement; the overflowing scourge, when it passeth by, shall not come at us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we sought a hiding-place.” ¹⁶ Therefore the Sovereign LORD says this: "Look! I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a founded foundation: 'The one who trusts will not panic.' ¹⁷ I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. ¹⁸ "Your covenant with death will be annulled. Your agreement with the grave will not stand when the overflowing scourge passes through. Then you will be trampled down by it. ¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it will take you, for morning by morning it will pass through, in the day and in the night, and understanding the message will be only terror." ²⁰ For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. ²¹ For the LORD shall rise up, as at Mount Perazim; He shall be stirred as in the Gibeon Valley; to do His work, His strange work; and to perform His task, His alien task. ²² And now you must not scoff, or your bonds will be strong, for I have heard from the Lord, the LORD Almighty: complete destruction decreed upon all the land. ²³ Listen and hear My voice; pay attention and hear My word: ²⁴ Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods? ²⁵ When he has leveled its surface, does he not strew black cummin, and scatter cummin, and place wheat in rows, and barley in its place, and spelt in its border? ²⁶ For his God instructs him aright, [and] teaches him. ²⁷ For black cummin is not threshed with the sledge; nor is a cartwheel turned on cummin. But black cummin is beaten out with the staff, and cummin with the rod. ²⁸ Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it. ²⁹ This also comes from the LORD Almighty. He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.