Isaiah 28

1 Woe to Ephraim’s hired workers, the crown of pride, the flower fallen from the glorious summit of the fertile mountain, those drunk without wine.

2 Look, the Lord’s anger is strong and severe, like violent hail falling where there is no shelter, like a great flood sweeping away the soil. He will give rest to the land with his hands.

3 Ephraim’s hired workers, the crown of pride, will be trampled underfoot.

4 The fading flower of glorious hope on the high mountain’s summit will be like an early fig. Whoever sees it wants to swallow it before taking it in his hand.

5 On that day the Lord of armies will be a crown of hope, a woven crown of glory, for those of my people who remain.

6 They will be left with a spirit of judgment for giving judgment and with strength to prevent killing.

7 These people have wandered because of wine; they wandered because of strong drink. Priest and prophet are beside themselves because of wine and shaken by the drunkenness of strong drink. They have wandered; this is their vision.

8 A curse will devour this plan, because it was made for selfish gain.

9 To whom did we report harm, and to whom did we report a message? To children weaned from milk and taken from the breast.

10 Expect affliction on affliction, hope on hope, a little and a little,

11 because they will speak to this people with contemptuous lips and another language, saying,

12 ‘This is rest for the hungry, and this is crushing,’ but they refused to listen.

13 Therefore God’s message will become for them affliction on affliction, hope on hope, a little and a little, so they will walk backward and fall, be crushed, endangered, and captured.

14 Therefore listen to the Lord’s word, you afflicted men and rulers of this people in Jerusalem.

15 You said, ‘We made a covenant with Hades and agreements with death. If the rushing storm passes, it will not reach us, because we made falsehood our hope and will be protected by falsehood.’

16 Therefore this is what the Lord says: Look, I lay in Zion’s foundations a costly stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone. Whoever trusts in him will never be put to shame.

17 I will turn judgment into hope and my compassion into accurate measures. But you who trust in falsehood for nothing will fall, because the storm will not pass you by,

18 unless it also takes away your covenant with death. Your trust in Hades will not stand. If the rushing storm comes on you, it will beat you down.

19 Whenever it passes, it will take you. Morning after morning it will pass by day, and at night there will be an evil hope. Learn to listen,

20 you who are distressed. We cannot fight, and we ourselves are too weak to gather.

21 The Lord will rise like a mountain of ungodly people and stand in the valley of Gabaon. In wrath he will carry out his bitter work. His wrath will act strangely, and his bitterness will be strange.

22 Therefore do not celebrate, and do not let your bonds grow strong. I heard from the Lord of armies about works he will finish and cut short throughout the earth.

23 Pay attention and listen to my voice; listen carefully to my words.

24 Does a farmer plow all day? Does he prepare the seed before tilling the ground?

25 After leveling its surface, does he not sow black cumin and cumin, then wheat, barley, and spelt along your borders?

26 In this way your God’s judgment will discipline you, and you will rejoice.

27 Black cumin is not cleaned with harsh treatment, and a wagon wheel does not pass over cumin. Black cumin is threshed with a rod, and cumin is eaten with bread.

28 I will not be angry with you forever, and the voice of my bitterness will not crush you.

29 These signs came from the Lord of armies. Take counsel; exalt empty comfort.