|
Chapter 28 |
| 1 | Woe to the
crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading
flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with
wine! |
| 2 |
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a
tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters
overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. |
| 3 | The crown
of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: |
| 4 |
And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a
fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that
looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up. |
| 5 |
In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem
of beauty, unto the residue of his people, |
|
6 | And for a spirit of
judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn
the battle to 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 of 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 there is no place
clean. |
| 9 |
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to
understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the
breasts. |
| 10
| For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: |
| 11 |
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
|
| 12 | To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to
rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. |
| 13 | But the
word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line
upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might
go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. |
| 14 |
Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people
which is in Jerusalem. |
| 15 | Because ye have said, We have made a
covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies
our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: |
| 16 | Therefore
thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a
tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth
shall not make haste. |
| 17 | Judgment also will I lay to the line, and
righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,
and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. |
| 18 | And your
covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall
not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be
trodden down by it. |
| 19 | From the time that it goeth forth it shall
take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and
it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. |
| 20 | For the bed
is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower
than that he can wrap himself in it. |
| 21 | For the LORD shall rise up as
in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do
his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
|
| 22 | Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I
have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the
whole earth. |
|
23 | Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear
my speech. |
| 24
| Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and
break the clods of his ground? |
| 25 | When he hath made plain the
face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and
cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their
place? |
| 26
| For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth
teach him. |
| 27
| For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing
instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the
fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. |
| 28 |
Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it
with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. |
| 29 | This
also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and
excellent in working. |
