Isaiah · 29 verses

Isaiah 28

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

A majestic crown is reduced to a ripe fig: whoever sees it picks it up and swallows it. Then the priests’ and prophets’ tables are covered with vomit, and the LORD announces a strange work without explaining the strangeness.

The crown and the tablesvv. 1–8

Ephraim’s splendid crown sits above a fertile valley, but its glory is already fading, and the LORD has a storm ready for it. The image then becomes almost comically physical: the crown is a ripe fig, too tempting to leave alone. A different crown is promised to the remnant—the LORD of Hosts—and strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate. Meanwhile priests and prophets stagger, muddled in vision and judgment, while their tables have acquired a most unfortunate upholstery.

The refuge that will not holdvv. 9–22

The people answer instruction as though it were nursery babble: order upon order, line upon line, a little here and there. They were offered a place of rest and would not listen, so the same words become the rhythm of stumbling, injury, entrapment, and capture. The scoffers ruling Jerusalem boast of a covenant with death and an agreement with Sheol, but lies make a poor hiding place when hail and water arrive. Zion receives a tested cornerstone, while the LORD rises at Perazim Mount and in the Valley of Gibeon to perform what the chapter itself calls a strange and disturbing task. The text leaves the strangeness splendidly unexplained.

The farmer knows when to stopvv. 23–29

The final turn is agricultural. A plowman does not plow forever, nor does he thresh every seed in the same fashion: caraway gets a stick, cumin a rod, and grain is ground without being crushed into oblivion. The lesson belongs to the farmer’s instructed skill, and the chapter ends by crediting the LORD with wonderful counsel and excellent wisdom.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Isa 28:1Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower of his glorious splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, the pride of those overcome by wine.
Isa 28:2Behold, the Lord has one who is strong and mighty. Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest, like a driving rain or flooding downpour, he will smash that crown to the ground.
Isa 28:3The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards will be trampled underfoot.
Isa 28:4The fading flower of his beautiful splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest: Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.
Isa 28:5On that day the LORD of Hosts will be a crown of glory, a diadem of splendor to the remnant of His people,
Isa 28:6a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and a strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.
Isa 28:7These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
Isa 28:8For all their tables are covered with vomit; there is not a place without filth.
Isa 28:9Whom is He trying to teach? To whom is He explaining His message? To infants just weaned from milk? To babies removed from the breast?
Isa 28:10For they hear: “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there.”
Isa 28:11Indeed, with mocking lips and foreign tongues, He will speak to this people
Isa 28:12to whom He has said: “This is the place of rest, let the weary rest; this is the place of repose.” But they would not listen.
Isa 28:13Then the word of the LORD to them will become: “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there,” so that they will go stumbling backward and will be injured, ensnared, and captured.
Isa 28:14Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.
Isa 28:15For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”
Isa 28:16So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.
Isa 28:17I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.
Isa 28:18Your covenant with death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be trampled by it.
Isa 28:19As often as it passes through, it will carry you away; it will sweep through morning after morning, by day and by night.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.
Isa 28:20Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too small to wrap around you.
Isa 28:21For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.
Isa 28:22So now, do not mock, or your shackles will become heavier. Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hosts a decree of destruction against the whole land.
Isa 28:23Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I say.
Isa 28:24Does the plowman plow for planting every day? Does he continuously loosen and harrow the soil?
Isa 28:25When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, and rye within its border.
Isa 28:26For his God instructs and teaches him properly.
Isa 28:27Surely caraway is not threshed with a sledge, and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin. But caraway is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.
Isa 28:28Grain for bread must be ground, but it is not endlessly threshed. Though the wheels of the cart roll over it, the horses do not crush it.
Isa 28:29This also comes from the LORD of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Perazim Mountplace

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 374 passages were voted onto 29 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

16 Psalms 118:22The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
16 Acts 4:11–12This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’
16 1 Peter 2:6–8For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
16 Luke 20:17–18But Jesus looked directly at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
16 Romans 9:33as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
16 Mark 12:10Have you never read this Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
16 Matthew 21:42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
16 Isaiah 8:14–15And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.
16 Ephesians 2:20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
16 1 Corinthians 3:11For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
16 Zechariah 3:9See the stone I have set before Joshua; on that one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave on it an inscription, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
11 1 Corinthians 14:21It is written in the Law: “By strange tongues and foreign lips I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to Me, says the Lord.”
16 Genesis 49:24Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
9 Psalms 131:2Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
9 Jeremiah 6:10To whom can I give this warning? Who will listen to me? Look, their ears are closed, so they cannot hear. See, the word of the LORD has become offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.
11 Deuteronomy 28:49The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,

Onward

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