Isaiah

VARIOUS ORACLES

Against the Northern Kingdom

Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim proudly adorned, to that fading flower of glorious beauty on the head of a rich valley— all are dizzy with wine.

Look, the Lord is sending a powerful and strong one. Like a downpour of hail, like a destructive tempest, like flooding water in torrential rain, he will cast it down to the ground—

that proud ornament of the drunkards of Ephraim. He will trample it underfoot—

that fading flower of glorious beauty on the head of a rich valley. It will be like an early fruit which ripened before summer: as soon as someone sees it he picks it, and while it is yet in his hand, he eats it.

On that day, the Lord Sabaoth will be a glorious ornament, a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people.

He will be a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the enemies at the gate.

Against Those Who Mock the Prophet

But they also have erred through wine, reeling and stumbling from a strong drink. Priests and prophets stagger, befuddled with wine, reeling when seeing visions, stumbling when rendering decisions.

All the tables are full of vomit; There is not a spot without filth.

“Who does he think he is teaching? Who does he think listens to him? Babies just weaned from their mother’s milk? Babies just taken from their mother’s breast?

Indeed, they will hear meaningless, gibberish, senseless babbling, a syllable here, a syllable there.

Yes, surely, with stammering lips and in a strange tongue, he will talk to this nation,

he who once said to them, “This is rest; give rest to the weary;” and, “This is repose.” But they would not listen.

So the Lord’s word to them will sound like meaningless, gibberish, senseless babbling, a syllable here, a syllable there. As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk and be injured, ensnared, and captured.

Covenant with Death and Proper Foundation

Therefore, listen to the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule these people of Jerusalem.

Because you make a boast, “We have made a covenant with death, we have made a pact with the netherworld. When the flood passes by it cannot harm us, for we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

Therefore, the Lord God says this: “See, I lay in Zion a granite stone, a precious stone, a sure foundation; he who relies on it shall not be put to shame.

I will make justice the measure and righteousness the plumb line. Violent hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and raging waters will overflow your hiding place.”

Your covenant with death will not stand, your pact with the netherworld will be annulled. When the overwhelming flood passes, you will be crushed by it.

Morning after morning, by day and by night, the scourge will seize and crush you. If you understood this message, you would be terrified.

Against the Cynics

“The bed will be too short to stretch out in, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.”

The Lord will arise as on Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to work his work—his singular work; to do his deed—his strange deed.

Put an end to your mocking, or your bonds will be tightened, for I have heard the destruction decreed from the Lord, the God of hosts, for the whole land.

Agricultural Instruction

Listen to my words, pay attention, and understand what I say.

Does a farmer just keep on plowing at planting time? Does he keep breaking up and harrowing his ground?

After leveling the soil, does he not begin to sow caraway, scatter cumin, wheat, and barley, and put spelt as the border?

For his God instructs him on what to do, and he gives him guidance and discretion, too.

For caraway is not threshed nor cumin crushed, but caraway is beaten with a stick and cumin with a rod.

Is the wheat milled on the threshing floor? Is it threshed without end? They put in movement chariots and horses but do not grind them.

All comes from the Lord Sabaoth, whose advice and wisdom are excellent.