The Lantern

Isaiah28

The Captivity of Ephraim

Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the withering blossom of his splendid beauty, which is on the head of a valley of fat things, of those struck down by wine!

See, the Lord has one strong and mighty; like a downpour of hail, a destroying storm, like a downpour of mighty overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with force.

By feet it will be trampled — the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim.

And the withering blossom of his splendid beauty, which is on the head of a valley of fat things, will be like a first-ripe fig before summer, which the one who sees it swallows down while it is still in his palm.

In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of splendor and a diadem of beauty for the remnant of his people,

and a spirit of justice for the one sitting in judgment, and strength for those who turn back the battle at the gate.

And these also have reeled with wine and staggered with strong drink. Priest and prophet have reeled with strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they have staggered from strong drink; they reel in vision, they totter in giving a decision.

For all the tables are full of vomit, of filth, with no place clean.

Whom would he teach knowledge, and whom would he make to understand a message? Those weaned from milk, taken from the breasts?

For it is tsav la-tsav, tsav la-tsav, qav la-qav, qav la-qav, a little here, a little there.

For with stammering lip and with another tongue he will speak to this people —

he who said to them, “This is the rest; give rest to the weary; and this is the repose” — and they were not willing to listen.

And the word of the LORD will be to them tsav la-tsav, tsav la-tsav, qav la-qav, qav la-qav, a little here, a little there — so that they may go and stumble backward and be broken, and be snared and caught.

A Cornerstone in Zion

Therefore hear the word of the LORD, men of scoffing, rulers of this people who are in Jerusalem.

For you have said: We have cut a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made a vision; the overflowing scourge, when it passes through, will not come to us — for we have made a lie our refuge, and in falsehood we have hidden ourselves.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a stone of testing, a precious cornerstone of a founded foundation. The one who trusts will not be in haste.

And I will set justice as a line, and righteousness as a plummet; and hail will sweep away the refuge of a lie, and waters will overflow the hiding place.

And your covenant with death will be wiped out, and your vision with Sheol will not stand; the overflowing scourge, when it passes through — you will be a trampling for it.

As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night. And it will be sheer trembling to understand the message.

For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the covering too narrow to wrap in.

For as at Mount Perazim the LORD will rise, as in the valley at Gibeon he will rage — to do his deed, strange is his deed, and to work his work, foreign is his work.

And now do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for a full end, and one decreed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts against all the earth.

Listen and Hear

Give ear and hear my voice; listen and hear my word.

Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he open and harrow his ground?

Does he not, when he has leveled its face, scatter black cumin and throw cumin, and set wheat in rows and barley in its place and spelt at its border?

And his God instructs him in what is right; he teaches him.

For black cumin is not threshed with a sledge, and a cart wheel is not rolled over cumin; for black cumin is beaten out with a staff, and cumin with a rod.

Bread grain is crushed — but not forever does one thresh it threshing; and he drives the wheel of his cart and his horses over it, but does not crush it.

This also has come out from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel, great in sound wisdom.