King James VersionIsaiah28

Isaiah

1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunk­ards of Ephraim, whose glo­ri­ous beau­ty is a fad­ing flow­er, which are on the head of the fat val­leys of them that are over­come with wine! 2 Be­hold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tem­pest of hail and a de­stroy­ing storm, as a flood of mighty wa­ters over­flow­ing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. 3 The crown of pride, the drunk­ards of Ephraim, shall be trod­den un­der feet: 4 And the glo­ri­ous beau­ty, which is on the head of the fat val­ley, shall be a fad­ing flow­er, and as the hasty fruit be­fore the sum­mer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up. 5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glo­ry, and for a di­a­dem of beau­ty, unto the residue of his peo­ple, 6 And for a spir­it of judg­ment to him that sit­teth in judg­ment, and for strength to them that turn the bat­tle to the gate. 7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swal­lowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vi­sion, they stum­ble in judg­ment. 8 For all ta­bles are full of vom­it and filth­i­ness, ­so that there is no place clean. 9 Whom shall he teach knowl­edge? and whom shall he make to un­der­stand doc­trine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10 For pre­cept ­must be upon pre­cept, pre­cept upon pre­cept; line upon line, line upon line; here a lit­tle, and there a lit­tle: 11 For with stam­mer­ing lips and an­oth­er tongue will he speak to this peo­ple. 12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the re­fresh­ing: yet they would not hear. 13 But the word of the LORD was unto them pre­cept upon pre­cept, pre­cept upon pre­cept; line upon line, line upon line; here a lit­tle, and there a lit­tle; that they might go, and fall back­ward, and be bro­ken, and snared, and tak­en. 14 Where­fore hear the word of the LORD, ye scorn­ful men, that rule this peo­ple which is in Jerusalem. 15 Be­cause ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agree­ment; when the over­flow­ing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and un­der false­hood have we hid our­selves: 16 There­fore thus saith the Lord GOD, Be­hold, I lay in Zion for a foun­da­tion a stone, a tried stone, a pre­cious cor­ner stone, a sure foun­da­tion: he that be­lieveth shall not make haste. 17 Judg­ment also will I lay to the line, and righ­teous­ness to the plum­met: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the wa­ters shall over­flow the hid­ing place. 18 And your covenant with death shall be dis­an­nulled, and your agree­ment with hell shall not stand; when the over­flow­ing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trod­den down by it. 19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morn­ing by morn­ing shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vex­a­tion only to un­der­stand the re­port. 20 For the bed is short­er than that a man can stretch him­self on it: and the cov­er­ing nar­row­er than that he can wrap him­self in it. 21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Per­az­im, he shall be wroth as in the val­ley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. 22 Now there­fore be ye not mock­ers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a con­sump­tion, even de­ter­mined upon the whole earth. 23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hear­ken, and hear my speech. 24 Doth the plow­man plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? 25 When he hath made plain the face there­of, doth he not cast abroad the fitch­es, and scat­ter the cum­min, and cast in the prin­ci­pal wheat and the ap­point­ed bar­ley and the rie in their place? 26 For his God doth in­struct him to dis­cre­tion, and doth teach him. 27 For the fitch­es are not threshed with a thresh­ing in­stru­ment, nei­ther is a cart wheel turned about upon the cum­min; but the fitch­es are beat­en out with a staff, and the cum­min with a rod. 28 Bread corn is bruised; be­cause he will not ever be thresh­ing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horse­men. 29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is won­der­ful in coun­sel, and ex­cel­lent in work­ing.