Isaiah 28 · The Lantern

Ho! crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim, and the dead flower of his glory which is on the head of those who are overcome by strong drink!

See, the Lord has a strong and cruel one; like a rain of ice, a storm of destruction, like the overflowing of a strong river, he will violently overcome them.

The crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim will be crushed under foot;

And the dead flower of his glory, which is on the head of the fertile valley, will be like the first early fruit before the summer; which a man takes and puts in his mouth the minute he sees it.

In that day will the Lord of armies be a crown of glory, and a fair ornament, to the rest of his people;

And a spirit of wisdom to the judge, and strength to those who keep back the attackers at the door of the town.

And further, these are uncertain through wine, and have gone out of the right way through strong drink: the priest and the prophet are uncertain through strong drink, they are overcome by wine, they have gone out of the way through strong drink; their vision is false, they go wrong in their decisions.

For all the tables are covered with coughed-up food, so that there is not a clean place.

To whom will he give knowledge? and to whom will he make clear the word? Will it be to those who have newly given up milk, and who have only now been taken from the breast?

For it is one rule after another; one line after another; here a little, there a little.

No, but with broken talk, and with a strange tongue, he will give his word to this people:

Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

Someone might well ask how the apostles drew to themselves all these people. How did men who spoke only the language of the Jews win over the Scythian, the Indian, the Sarmatian and the Thracian? Because they received the gift of tongues through the Holy Spirit.

And he adds the punishment: for with the speech of lips, and with another tongue, that is, you shall so lack understanding of the prophets as if someone were speaking to you, with only the movement of the lips, and in a foreign tongue; or right away he will inflict wounds on you. And of this kind of speaking: let us examine him by outrages and tortures (Wis 2:19).

To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him who is tired; and by this you may get new strength; but they would not give ear.

For this cause the word of the Lord will be to them rule after rule, line after line, here a little, there a little; so that they may go on their way, and falling back may be broken, and taken in the net.

Give ear then to the word of the Lord, you men of pride, the rulers of this people in Jerusalem:

What, then, are the burdens that he censures? None but those which they were accumulating of their own accord, when they taught for commandments the doctrines of men; for the sake of private advantage joining house to house, so as to deprive their neighbor of his own; cajoling the people, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, robbing the poor of the right of judgment, that they might…

(Verse 14, 15). Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you mockers who rule over my people in Jerusalem. For you have said: We have made a covenant with death, and with the grave we have made a pact. When the overwhelming whip passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made falsehood our refuge, and we have hidden behind deceit.

646. Wherefore. Here he excludes remedy. And first, he sets out two remedies; second, he excludes both from them: and I will set (Isa 28:17). Concerning the first, he sets out two remedies.

Because you have said, We have made death our friend, and with the underworld we have made an agreement; when the overflowing waters come through they will not come near us; for we are looking to false words for help, taking cover in what is untrue:

For this cause says the Lord God, See, I am placing in Zion as a base, a stone, a tested stone, an angle-stone which is certain and of great value: and he who has faith will not give way.

For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep?

The foundation of justice therefore is faith, for the hearts of the just dwell on faith. And the just man that accuses himself builds justice on faith, for his justice becomes plain when he confesses the truth. So the Lord says through Isaiah: "Behold, I lay a stone for a foundation in Zion." This means Christ as the foundation of the church.

Second is the remedy which God prepares for the saints, namely Christ: behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Zion: the stone which the builders rejected; the same is become the head of the corner (Ps 117[118]:22); he that believes, let him not hasten, but wait for it: if it make any delay, wait for it (Hab 2:3), and this against the blasphemies of the wicked.

And I will make right decision the measuring-line, and righteousness the weight: and the ice-storm will take away the safe place of false words, and the secret place will be covered by the flowing waters.

The Judge wishes to have mercy on you and to share his own compassion, but on condition that he finds you humble after sin, contrite, lamenting much for your evil deeds, announcing publicly without shame sins committed secretly, begging the brothers to labor with you in reparation. In short, if he sees that you are worthy of pity, he provides his mercy for you ungrudgingly.

(Verses 17-18). And I will put judgment in the balance, and justice in the measure: and hail will overthrow the hope of lies, and the covering waters will flood. And your covenant with death shall be abolished, and your pact with Hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, you shall be trampled.

647. And I will set. Here he excludes both of these remedies, and first, the first remedy, second, the second remedy: for the bed is straitened (Isa 28:20).

And the help you were looking for from death will come to nothing, and your agreement with the underworld will be broken; when the overflowing waters come through, then you will be overcome by them.

Whenever they come through they will overtake you; for they will come through morning after morning, by day and by night: and the news will be nothing but fear.

Every time is suitable for your ablution, since any time may be your death. With Paul I shout to you with that loud voice, "Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation";56 and that now does not point to any one time but is every present moment. And again "Awake, you that sleep, and Christ shall give you light," dispelling the darkness of sin.

Now righteous people conceive a dread of God before his indignation is stirred up against them; they fear him at rest, lest they should feel him as moved. But, on the other hand, the wicked then for the first time fear to be smitten when they are under the rod, and terror then rouses them from the sleep of their insensibility when vengeance is troubling them.

Third, the fruit of the exclusion, and vexation alone, above: Lord, they have sought after you in distress (Isa 26:16).

For the bed is not long enough for a man to be stretched out on: and the cover is not wide enough for him to be covered with.

For the Lord will come up as on Mount Perazim, he will be moved to wrath as in the valley of Gibeon; so that he may do his work--strange is his work; and give effect to his act--unnatural is his act.

(Verse 21, 22.) For just as the Lord will stand on the mountain of divisions, and will be angry in the valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his strange work, to carry out his task, his alien task. And now do not mock: lest perhaps your chains be tightened. For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a conclusion and an abbreviation over all the earth.

Hence Isaiah, contemplating our salvation and [Christ's] passion, well said: "That he may do his work, his strange work; that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him." For the work of God is to gather the souls that he created and call them back to the joys of the eternal light.

Second, he sets out the coming of the liberator, as in the mountain of divisions. He refers to the history which is found in 2 Kings 5; as in the valley, Joshua 10.

And now, take care that you do not make sport of him, or your bands will be made strong; for I have had word from the Lord, the Lord of armies, of an end, of a complete end, which is to come on all the land.

Let your ears be open to my voice; give attention to what I say.

Is the ploughman for ever ploughing? does he not get the earth ready and broken up for the seed?

When the face of the earth has been levelled, does he not put in the different sorts of seed, and the grain in lines, and the barley in its place, and the spelt at the edge?

For his God is his teacher, giving him the knowledge of these things.

For the fitches are not crushed with a sharp instrument, and a cart-wheel is not rolled over the cummin; but the grain of the fitches is hammered out with a stick, and of the cummin with a rod.

Is the grain for bread crushed? He does not go on crushing it for ever, but he lets his cart-wheels and his horses go over it without crushing it.

This comes from the Lord of armies, purposing wonders, and wise in all his acts.

Isaiah28