Drunkards and scoffers in Israel
28
📚✭Woe to the crown✭ of prideof the drunkards✭ of Ephraim✭,
whose glorious beauty is a
fading flower,
which is at the head of
the lush valleys of those who are
overcome with wine!
2 📚See, the Lord has someone
mighty✭ and strong;
like a tempest of hail and
a destroying storm,
like a flood of mighty
overflowing waters,
with the hand he will bring them
down to the earth.
3 📚The crown of pride of the drunkards
of Ephraim will be trampled
underfoot,
4 📚And the glorious beauty
at the head of the lush valley
will be a fading flower✭,
and like the first ripe fruit
before the summer,
which someone looks
at and sees;
while it is still in his hand
he eats it up.
5 📚In that day✭ the LORD of hosts✭
will be as a crown of glory,
and as a diadem of beauty,
to the remainder of his people,
6 📚And as a spirit of justice✭ to him
who sits in judgment,
and as strength✭ to those who
turn back the battle
at 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
by 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 no place is clean.
9 📚✭“Whom will he teach knowledge?
And whom will he cause
to understand doctrine?
Those who are weaned
from the milk and drawn
from the breasts.
10 📚For precept must be
on precept,
precept on precept;
line on line, line on line;
here a little,
and there a little”.
11 📚✭For with stammering lips
and a foreign tongue he will speak
to this people,
12 📚To whom he said,
“This is the rest
with which you may cause
the weary to rest,
and this is the refreshing”.
But they would not listen.
13 📚So the word of the LORD was
to them precept on precept,
precept on precept;
line on line, line on line;
here a little, and there a little,
so that they might go
and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared,
and captured.
14 📚Therefore hear the word of the LORD,
you scornful men who rule this people
who are in Jerusalem.
15 📚✭Because you have said,
“We have made a covenant
with death,
and with hell we are in
agreement.
When the overflowing scourge
passes through,
it will not come to us,
for we have made lies
our refuge,
and have hidden ourselves
under falsehood✭”.
A precious cornerstone
16 📚✭Therefore thus says
the Lord God:
“Look! I lay in Zion
a foundation stone,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation.
He who believes will not be hasty.
17 📚And I will make justice✭
the measuring line,
and righteousness
the plumb line;
and the hail✭ will sweep away
the refuge of lies,
and the waters will overflow
the hiding place.
18 📚And your covenant with death
will be annulled,
and your agreement
with hell will not stand.
When the overflowing scourge✭
passes through,
then you will be trampled
down by it.
19 📚✭As often as it goes out
it will take you;
for morning by morning
it will pass over,
by day and by night;
and understanding the report
will bring terror✭”.
20 📚✭For the bed is so short
that a man cannot stretch
himself on it,
and the cover is so narrow
that he cannot wrap himself in it.
21 📚For the LORD will rise up
as in Mount Perazim✭.
He will be angry as in
the Valley of Gibeon✭,
that he may do his work,
his strange work✭,
and accomplish his act,
his unusual act.
22 📚Now, therefore,
do not be mockers✭,
so your shackles will not
become stronger;
for I have heard of a destruction
from the Lord God of hosts,
determined✭ against
the whole earth.
23 📚✭Give ear and hear my voice;
listen, and hear my words.
24 📚Does the plowman plow
all day to sow?
Does he turn up and break
the clods of his ground?
25 📚When he has made
the surface level,
does he not sow the caraway,
and scatter the cummin,
and plant wheat in rows,
and the barley in its appointed place
and the rye in its plot?
26 📚For his God instructs him
and teaches him
the right way.
27 📚For the caraway is not threshed
with a threshing instrument,
nor is a cart wheel rolled
over the cummin;
but the caraway is beaten out
with a stick,
and the cummin with a rod.
28 📚Bread grain is ground,
so he does not continually thresh it
or smash it with his cart wheel
or crush it by his horsemen.
29 📚This also comes from the LORD
of hosts✭,
who is wonderful
in counsel,
and excellent in working.