Woe to the proud drunkards of Ephraim. Isaiah rebukes the priests and prophets of Judah who mock his message. The LORD is laying in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, and whoever believes will not be shaken.
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 .