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Isaiah 28

Isaiah exposes leaders’ false security, sets God’s sure foundation against their lies, and closes with the wisdom God teaches farmers.

Isaiah announces the fall of Ephraim’s proud, drunken leaders, whose splendor will vanish like a fading flower. He then confronts priests and prophets impaired by drink and Jerusalem’s rulers who trust in a refuge of lies. Against their claims of safety, the Lord declares judgment and lays a sure foundation in Zion. The closing picture turns to farming: God teaches the farmer when to plow, sow, and thresh, revealing wisdom in work that has its proper limits.

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1Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!
2Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.
3The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.
4The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer, which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.
5In that day, the LORD of Armies will become a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the residue of his people,
6and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.
8For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.
9Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?
10For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.
12to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to the weary,” and “This is the refreshing;” yet they would not hear.
13Therefore the LORD’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.
14Therefore hear the LORD’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:
15“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’”
16Therefore the Lord GOD says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.
17I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
18Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.
19As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.”
20For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.
21For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.
22Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, GOD of Armies, on the whole earth.
23Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!
25When he has leveled its surface, doesn’t he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?
26For his God instructs him in right judgment and teaches him.
27For the dill isn’t threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.
28Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don’t grind it.
29This also comes out from the LORD of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Isaiah 28:16God’s foundation in Zion stands secure amid collapsing refuges, placing trust in his provision at the center of the warning.
Isaiah 28:7Drunken priests and prophets corrupt the very vision and judgment through which the people should receive guidance.
Isaiah 28:12The rejected offer of rest shows that the coming judgment follows a refusal to hear God’s word.
Where this chapter reaches

Romans and 1 Peter quote the promise of the stone in Zion and apply it to Christ, linking Isaiah’s sure foundation with faith in him. Matthew shares the theme of rest for the weary through Jesus’ call to come to him.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How does the sure foundation in Zion contrast with the forms of safety Jerusalem’s rulers claim?

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What does the farmer’s care with different crops add to your reading of the chapter’s judgment?

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Questions people ask about Isaiah 28

What does “precept on precept” mean in Isaiah 28?

The repeated phrases occur amid resistance to the prophetic message. Many interpreters hear leaders mocking Isaiah’s teaching as childish repetition, though the speaker in verses 9–10 is debated. Verse 13 turns the same wording into judgment: the word they reject becomes associated with their stumbling, capture, and defeat.

Who is the cornerstone in Isaiah 28:16?

In Isaiah’s setting, the stone represents the secure foundation God establishes in Zion against the rulers’ refuge of lies. The verse does not name a person. Romans and 1 Peter quote this promise in relation to Jesus Christ, identifying him as the one in whom believers place their trust.

What is the covenant with death in Isaiah 28?

The phrase depicts Jerusalem’s rulers claiming protection from the coming scourge. Isaiah exposes that confidence as a refuge built on falsehood. It may point to political arrangements meant to avert invasion, though no alliance is named here. God declares that their supposed agreement with death will fail when judgment comes.

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Isaiah · 66 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).