Isaiah 27-29
English Standard Version
The Redemption of Israel
27 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong (A)sword will punish (B)Leviathan the fleeing serpent, (C)Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay (D)the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day,
(E)“A pleasant vineyard,[a] (F)sing of it!
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
4 I have no wrath.
(G)Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
5 Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”
6 (H)In days to come[b] Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 (I)Has he struck them (J)as he struck those who struck them?
Or have they been slain (K)as their slayers were slain?
8 (L)Measure by measure,[c] by exile you contended with them;
(M)he removed them with his fierce breath[d] in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this (N)the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:[e]
(O)when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no (P)Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10 (Q)For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
there it lies down and strips its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
(R)For this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
he who formed them will show them no favor.
12 In that day (S)from the river Euphrates[f] to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day (T)a great trumpet will be blown, (U)and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt (V)will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem
28 Ah, the proud crown of (W)the drunkards of Ephraim,
and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has (X)one who is mighty and strong;
like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,
like (Y)a storm of mighty, overflowing waters,
he casts down to the earth with his hand.
3 (Z)The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
will be trodden underfoot;
4 (AA)and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the rich valley,
will be like (AB)a first-ripe fig[g] before the summer:
when someone sees it, he swallows it
as soon as it is in his hand.
5 (AC)In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory,[h]
and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,
6 and (AD)a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
and (AE)strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 (AF)These also reel with wine
and (AG)stagger with strong drink;
the priest and (AH)the prophet reel with strong drink,
they are swallowed by[i] wine,
they stagger with strong drink,
they reel in vision,
they stumble in giving judgment.
8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit,
with no space left.
9 (AI)“To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
those taken from the breast?
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.”
11 (AJ)For by people of strange lips
and with a foreign tongue
the Lord will speak to this people,
12 to whom he has said,
(AK)“This is rest;
give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”;
yet they would not hear.
13 And the word of the Lord will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,
(AL)that they may go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken.
A Cornerstone in Zion
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you (AM)scoffers,
who rule this people in Jerusalem!
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol we have an agreement,
when the (AN)overwhelming whip passes through
it will not come to us,
for we have made (AO)lies our refuge,
and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
16 therefore thus says the Lord God,
(AP)“Behold, I am the one who has laid[j] as a foundation (AQ)in Zion,
a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
17 And I will make justice (AR)the line,
and righteousness (AS)the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
18 Then (AT)your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be beaten down by it.
19 As often as it passes through it will take you;
(AU)for morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night;
and it will be (AV)sheer terror to understand the message.
20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
21 For the Lord will rise up (AW)as on Mount Perazim;
(AX)as in the Valley of (AY)Gibeon he will be roused;
to do his deed—strange is his deed!
and to work his work—alien is his work!
22 Now therefore do not (AZ)scoff,
lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard (BA)a decree of destruction
from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.
23 Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech.
24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
25 (BB)When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer[k] as the border?
26 (BC)For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him.
27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;[l]
when he drives his cart wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts;
he is (BD)wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.
The Siege of Jerusalem
29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
the city (BE)where David encamped!
Add year to year;
let the feasts run their round.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel,
and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
and she shall be to me like an Ariel.[m]
3 (BF)And I will encamp against you all around,
and will besiege you (BG)with towers
and I will raise siegeworks against you.
4 (BH)And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,
and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;
your voice shall come from the ground like (BI)the voice of a ghost,
and from the dust your speech shall whisper.
5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like (BJ)small dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
(BK)And in an instant, suddenly,
6 (BL)you will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 And (BM)the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
shall be (BN)like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 (BO)As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,
or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking,
and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
that fight against Mount Zion.
9 Astonish yourselves[n] and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk,[o] but not with wine;
(BP)stagger,[p] but not with strong drink!
10 (BQ)For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).
11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is (BR)sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
13 And the Lord said:
“Because (BS)this people (BT)draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
14 therefore, behold, (BU)I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and (BV)the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
15 Ah, (BW)you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,
whose deeds are (BX)in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 (BY)You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
17 Is it not yet a very little while
(BZ)until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
18 In that day (CA)the deaf shall hear
(CB)the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
(CC)the eyes of the blind shall see.
19 (CD)The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing
and (CE)the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender,
and (CF)lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and with an empty plea (CG)turn aside him who is in the right.
22 Therefore thus says the Lord, (CH)who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,
no more shall his face grow pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
(CI)the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name;
(CJ)they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 And those (CK)who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 27:2 Many Hebrew manuscripts A vineyard of wine
- Isaiah 27:6 Hebrew In those to come
- Isaiah 27:8 Or By driving her away; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
- Isaiah 27:8 Or wind
- Isaiah 27:9 Septuagint and this is the blessing when I take away his sin
- Isaiah 27:12 Hebrew from the River
- Isaiah 28:4 Or fruit
- Isaiah 28:5 The Hebrew words for glory and hosts sound alike
- Isaiah 28:7 Or confused by
- Isaiah 28:16 Dead Sea Scroll I am laying
- Isaiah 28:25 A type of wheat
- Isaiah 28:28 Or Grain is crushed for bread; he will surely thresh it, but not forever
- Isaiah 29:2 Ariel could mean lion of God, or hero (2 Samuel 23:20), or altar hearth (Ezekiel 43:15–16)
- Isaiah 29:9 Or Linger awhile
- Isaiah 29:9 Or They are drunk
- Isaiah 29:9 Or they stagger
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Bible Gateway Recommends
