Isaiah 28

Too bad for the drunks of Ephraim. [1]
Their pretty blossoms are wilted and limp.
They used to be the brightest flowers in the valley.
Now they’re a bouquet of drunks.
2Look at that.
The LORD recruited someone strong,
With the combined strength
of a hammering hailstorm,
A tornado, and a flood.
God’s going to throw him onto the earth.
3The limp little blossoms—Ephraim’s drunks—
Will get trampled where they lay.
4The wilted, limp flower
From the brightest in the valley
Will live a short life,
Like that of summer’s early figs.
First one to see those figs
Devours them. All gone.

When this happens, people will finally see
That the LORD of all
Is the glory and the beauty of Israel.
6Leaders will rule in a spirit of justice.
People will defend their cities.

But for now, the leaders are drunks.
When priests and prophets open their mouths,
They reek of booze breath.
They don’t make sense,
They report their visions incorrectly.
And they make bad decisions.
8They have seats at the table of power,
But the table is covered in vomit.
9So, who will teach the lessons,
And what students will they teach?
Are the leaders even fit to teach
Babies pulled off the breast?
10“Repeat after me,
A, B, C,
1, 2, 3.
A, B, C, 1, 2, 3.” [2]
11Others will speak up.
But they’ll sound odd and foreign.
12They’ll say unusual things like:
“This is how to live in peace:
Help weary people find peace.
This is how you’ll find your own peace.”
But no one will listen.
13So, the LORD will teach what they want.
“Repeat after me,
A, B, C,
1, 2, 3.
A, B, C, 1, 2, 3.”
They’ll learn nothing and they’ll fall behind.
This failure will become the trap
That gets them conquered and captured.

It’s time now for you Jerusalem rulers,
You bunch of ridiculing fools,
To hear the message the LORD has for you.
15You think you made a peace treaty with death,
A deal with the grave. [3]
So you think when terrible trouble comes
It won’t come to you. [4]
Why do you believe lies like that?
Why do put your faith in false security?
16Here’s what the LORD says:
I’m going to lay a foundation stone in Jerusalem.
It’s the perfect cornerstone,
A solid foundation to build on.
You can count on this rock to hold you.
It’ll give you no worry.
17I’m going to run this nation with a plumbline.
The straight line is justice.
The plumb weight keeping it straight is goodness.
I’ll send a hailstorm to drive out the lies,
And a flood to wash them away.
18I’ll revoke your deal with death,
The agreement you make with the grave.
When trouble comes calling—and it will—
It’s coming to you, with a beat-down.
19Whenever trouble passes through your land
It’ll pay you a visit, morning, midday, or night.
It’s going to teach you a thing or two,
Terrifying and horrifying lessons.
20You bought yourself a bed too short
And a blanket to match.
Way to go.
21The LORD’s going to fight [5]
Like he did at Mount Perazim. [6]
He’s going to show his rage
Like he did in Gibeon’s [7] valley.
But this time he’s fighting against Judah.
People will say, “These are strange battles for God. [8]
He shouldn’t get into these fights.”
22Stop badmouthing God.
Or you’ll pay a higher price.
This is the message from the LORD God of all.
It’s the announcement of your destruction.

Listen closely.
I’m going to tell you something.
24Farmers don’t plow all year long, do they?
They’re not sod-busting all the time.
25After they plow, don’t they plant spices and grains?
Dill and cumin, wheat and barley?
With spelt [9] along the outside of the fields?
26They know what they’re doing.
God taught them.
27They don’t pull a huge threshing board
Over delicate dill stems
Or crush cumin with a wagon wheel.
They knock them loose with a stick.
28You crush grain into flour.
But you don’t pulverize it into nothing.
You crush it under a grinding wheel
But you stop when it turns to flour.
29The LORD works like this, too.
So, he knows how far to go
And when to stop.
He’s a wise and wonderful advisor.