Isaiah 28:11-29 ▼

11 For by scorned lip, and by another tongue, || Does He speak to this people.

12 To whom He has said, “This [is] the rest, give rest to the weary, || And this—the refreshing”: And they have not been willing to hear,

13 And to whom a word of YHWH has 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 a word of YHWH, you men of scorning, || Ruling this people that [is] in Jerusalem.

15 Because you have said: “We have made a covenant with death, || And we have made a provision with Sheol, || An overflowing scourge, when it passes over, || Does not meet us, || Though we have made a lie our refuge, || And have been hidden in falsehood.”

16 Therefore, thus said Lord YHWH: “Behold, I am laying a foundation in Zion, || A stone—a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a settled foundation, || He who is believing does not make haste.

17 And I have put judgment for a line, || And righteousness for a plummet, || And hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, || And waters overflow the secret hiding place.

18 And your covenant with death has been annulled, || And your provision with Sheol does not stand, || An overflowing scourge, when it passes over, || Then you have been to it for a treading-place.

19 From the fullness of its passing over it takes you, || For it passes over morning by morning, || By day and by night, || And it has been only a trembling to consider the report.

20 For the bed has been shorter || Than to stretch one’s self out in, || And the covering has been narrower || Than to wrap one’s self up in.

21 For as YHWH rises [at] Mount Perazim, || As He is troubled [at] the valley in Gibeon, || To do His work—strange [is] His work, || And to do His deed—strange [is] His deed.”

22 And now, do not show yourselves scorners, || Lest your bands are strong, || For a consumption, that is determined, || I have heard, by the Lord, YHWH of Hosts, || [Is] for all the land.

23 Give ear, and hear my voice, || Attend, and hear my saying:

24 Does the plowman plow the whole day to sow? He opens and harrows his ground!

25 Has he not, if he has made its face level, || Then scattered fitches, and sprinkles cumin, || And has placed the principal wheat, || And the appointed barley, || And the rye [in] its own border?

26 And his God instructs him for judgment, || He directs him.

27 For fitches are not threshed with a sharp-pointed thing, || And the wheel of a cart turned around on cumin, || For fitches are beaten out with a staff, || And cumin with a rod.

28 Bread-[grain] is beaten small, || For he does not severely thresh it forever, || Nor has a wheel of his cart crushed [it], || Nor do his hooves beat it small.

29 Even this from YHWH of Hosts has gone out, || He has made counsel wonderful, || He has made wisdom great!