Isaiahchapter 28
29 verses · Isaiah · 8th century BC · The Prophets
So 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.
Introduction
Isaiah, The Prophets, Isaiah Overview.
Isaiah son of Amoz spoke this chapter to the rulers of Jerusalem, men who had watched the northern kingdom sink and still trusted their own arrangements. It opens a section of the book marked by a run of woes, and it looks at Samaria before it turns south. The priests and prophets he addressed mocked him, and the chapter keeps their words beside his answer. Listen for the builder's terms, the stone, the line and the level, and for the farmer's year at the close. The New Testament returns to this chapter more than once.
Context
- Who
- Judah's leaders, who had watched the north fall and learned nothing from it
- What
- A woe on the drunken leaders of Samaria and then of Jerusalem, a warning against their pact for safety, and the promise of a tested stone laid in Zion.
- Where
- Samaria on its hill above a fertile valley, and then the court and temple of Jerusalem.
- When
- The word on Samaria before its fall in 722 BC; the word on Jerusalem most likely about 705 to 701 BC, while Judah sought help against Assyria.
- Why
- To show Judah's rulers that their treaty would fail them and that the one secure foundation is the one God lays.
Historical context
Samaria really did sit like a crown. The city was built on a rounded hill rising out of a broad, fertile valley, and from below it looked like a wreath on a head, which is exactly the phrase Isaiah uses: the crown of pride on the head of the fat valley. In 722 BC, after a siege of about three years, Assyria took it and deported the population, and the crown was, in his words, trodden underfoot.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The banquet scene that follows is described without mercy: priests and prophets staggering, reeling in vision, stumbling in judgment, and every table covered with vomit. These were the men who ruled on legal cases and claimed to hear from God.
Then they mock him, and the mockery is preserved in the text. The Hebrew syllables read like nonsense baby talk, order on order, rule on rule, a little here, a little there, as if the prophet talks to grown men the way you talk to a child just weaned. God's answer is that if they will not hear plain Hebrew, they will hear their instruction from foreign lips: the Assyrian language, which to them would sound exactly like nonsense syllables.
The covenant with death is a diplomatic pact, almost certainly the Egyptian alliance, and the leaders' own boast is quoted: we have made lies our refuge and hidden under falsehood. Against it God lays a foundation stone in Zion, tried and precious, and says he will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Those are a mason's tools: a cord stretched to keep a course straight and a weight hung to keep a wall true.
The chapter ends with a farming lesson everyone had lived. A plowman does not plow forever; he plows, then he sows, and each seed gets its own treatment. Dill and cumin are delicate, so they are beaten out with a stick and a rod. Bread grain is tougher, so it goes under the sledge and the cart wheel, but not endlessly, or the flour is ruined. The farmer knows when to stop. He learned it from God.
Significance
Judah's leadership had a foreign policy and a drinking problem and thought the first would cover the second. The prophet tells them their treaty will be annulled, and the bed they have made is too short to stretch out on and the blanket too narrow to wrap in, the most familiar discomfort there is.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
But the threshing lesson at the end is mercy in disguise. God's discipline is measured like a harvest, with a purpose and a stopping point. He is not trying to grind them to powder. He is trying to get bread.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The opening thirteen verses of this chapter are read aloud in the synagogue. In the Ashkenazi rite the Haftarah of the portion Shemot, which reads Exodus 1:1 to 6:1, is Isaiah 27:6 to 28:13 and 29:22 to 29:23, as the site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records it. The reading stops at the thirteenth verse and then leaps to the end of the next chapter. The same table records that the Sephardi rite reads Jeremiah 1:1 to 2:3 with that portion instead.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and Ibn Ezra from the Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah translated by M. Friedlander in 1873, which Sefaria reports as public domain. Rashi reads the drunkards of Ephraim through a saying of the Rabbis in Shabbath 147b, that the water of Damascus and the wine of Prugitha "robbed away the ten tribes" (Rashi on Isaiah 28:1:1). The judges and priests of the seventh verse are the best of that generation, and they too erred through wine (Rashi on Isaiah 28:7:1).
The ninth and tenth verses are where a reader of an English Bible most needs help, and Rashi gives it. The prophet asks whether he must teach infants, since the adults have turned to an evil way (Rashi on Isaiah 28:9:1). The repeated precept upon precept he reads as a quarrel. The people answer every command of the prophet with a precept of the idols, and say, "We have a precept for the precept" (Rashi on Isaiah 28:10:1). At the thirteenth verse, where the Haftarah of Shemot ends, the same words come back on them as the commands of the nations that enslave them (Rashi on Isaiah 28:13:1).
The stone laid in Zion at the sixteenth verse is the note a Christian reader will look for. Rashi reads the verb as past tense and the stone as a person: "I have set up the King Messiah, who shall be in Zion", as a fortress stone (Rashi on Isaiah 28:16:1). The treaty with death is annulled, and Rashi adds that every expression of atonement is an expression of wiping away (Rashi on Isaiah 28:18:1). Ibn Ezra on the twenty-third verse notes the parallelism of hearing the voice and hearing the speech (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 28:23:1).
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and none is quoted or paraphrased. On the first verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Noah 22 and Midrash Tanchuma, Shmini 11:1. On the second verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 47:1. On the third verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 99:8 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 10:13. On the fifth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 1:32 and Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:39. On the sixth verse it holds Megillah 15b:4 and Sanhedrin 111b:4.
On the seventh verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 36:4 and Esther Rabbah 5:1. On the eighth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 34:4 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim of Rabbi Eliezer, Book of the Ways of Life 39. On the ninth verse it holds Avodah Zarah 3b:11 and Berakhot 10a:15. On the tenth verse it holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 4:1. On the fourteenth verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 391:14.
On the fifteenth verse it holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 13:1. On the sixteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 28 and Devarim Rabbah 3:13. On the nineteenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:34 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bechukotai 1:1. On the twentieth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 7:10 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 22. On the twenty-first verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 77:3 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 18:27:6.
On the twenty-second verse it holds Avodah Zarah 18b:13 and Avodah Zarah 18b:15. On the twenty-third verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 30:11:2. On the twenty-fourth verse it holds Introductions to Amoraic Literature, Part II (Notes and Interpretations for Chapters of the Talmud), Baba Batra, Chapter III 165 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 12:1. On the twenty-fifth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Challah 1:1:9 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 12:20:82. On the twenty-sixth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:91 and Jerusalem Talmud Challah 1:1:9-11.
On the twenty-seventh verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 11:7:1 and Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of The 32 Midot of Aggadah 1:27. On the twenty-ninth verse it holds Avodah Zarah 17b:3 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Avodah Zarah 1:20.
The corpus files one further locator under a verse number this chapter does not reach. The site's table in src/data/bible/chapter-verse-counts.json counts the chapter at 29 verses in the Berean Standard Bible. The corpus files Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Avodah Zarah 1:26 at the number 32. It is cited as the corpus files it, and the anchor is left for a check against the source. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and it is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Isaiah 28:1:1 to 28:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 28:3:1 to 28:23:1, Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah, translated by M. Friedlander, 1873, reported public domain; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/isaiah/28.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the Haftarah of Shemot (Ashkenazi, Isaiah 27:6 to 28:13 and 29:22 to 29:23), and src/data/bible/chapter-verse-counts.json for the verse count.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Crown of Pride Worn by Drunkards of Ephraim
Isaiah 28:1-4
the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards: The woe falls on "the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards", and its glory is already "the fading flower". Verse 2 names one "strong and mighty" who comes "Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest". Verse 4 makes the flower "a ripe fig before the summer harvest", eaten when seen.
Isaiah 28:1
“Wo - (see the note at Isa 18:1). The word here is used to denounce impending judgment. To the crown of pride - This is a Hebrew mode of expression, denoting the proud or haughty crown. There can be no doubt that it refers to the capital of the kingdom of Ephraim; that is, to Samaria.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Isaiah 28:1
“Ephraim - Of the kingdom of the ten tribes. Who are - Who have their common abode. The head - Samaria, might well be called the head, as being seated upon a mountain, and the head of the kingdom, and the head of the fat valleys, because it was encompassed with many fat and rich valleys.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the Lord has one who is strong: The strong one belongs to the Lord, who sends him. Adam Clarke reads the Hebrew phrase as exceedingly strong, and he notes that many manuscripts name the LORD here by his covenant name. The hailstorm and the flooding downpour picture an invading army that will smash the crown of Samaria.
Isaiah 28:2
“Behold the Lord hath a mighty and strong one “Behold the mighty one, the exceedingly strong one” - אמץ לאדני ammits ladonai, fortis Domino, i.e., fortissimmus, a Hebraism. For לאדני ladonai, to the Lord, thirty-eight MSS. Of Dr. Kennicott’s and many of De Rossi’s, with some of my own, and two editions, read ליהוה laihovah, to Jehovah.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
will be trampled underfoot: The majestic crown on the heads of the drunkards will be trampled underfoot by others. John Wesley draws out the reversal, for the men who stumble to the ground from wine are trampled on that same ground. The pride of Ephraim ends in the dust.
Isaiah 28:3
The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim “The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim” - I read עטרות ataroth, crowns, plural, to agree with the verb תרמסנה teramasnah, “shall be trodden down.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:3
“Trodden - The expression is emphatical; the crown which was upon their own heads, shall be trodden under the feet of others; and they, whose drunkenness made them fall to the ground, shall be trodden down there.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
like a ripe fig before the summer harvest: The ripe fig before the summer harvest is the early fig, near ripe in June while the main crop waits until August. Adam Clarke sets out those seasons, and a fig that early is picked and eaten the day it is seen. A prize that ripe tempts every passer-by.
Isaiah 28:4
“The hasty fruit before the summer “The early fruit before the summer” - “No sooner doth the boccore, (the early fig), draw near to perfection in the middle or latter end of June, than the kermez or summer fig begins to be formed, though it rarely ripens before August; about which time the same tree frequently throws out a third crop, or the winter fig, as we may call it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 28:5-6
a crown of glory, a diadem of splendor: Against Ephraim's drunkards, "the LORD of Hosts will be a crown of glory, a diadem of splendor to the remnant of His people". Verse 6 names what that crown gives: "a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment".
Isaiah 28:5
“In that day - This verse commences a new subject, and affirms that while the kingdom of Israel should be destroyed, the kingdom of Judah would be preserved, and restored (compare Isa. 7–9) Be for a crown of glory - He shall reign there as its king, and he shall guard and defend the remnant of his people there. This reign of Yahweh shall be to them better than palaces, towers, walls, and fruitful fields, and shall be a more glorious ornament than the proud city of Samaria was to the kingdom of Israel.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:5
“The strength of the soldiery depends as much upon God as the wisdom of the magistracy; and where God gives both these he is to that people a crown of glory. This may well be supposed to refer to Christ, and so the Chaldee paraphrast understands it: In that day shall the Messiah be a crown of glory.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
repel the onslaught at the gate: The one who sits in judgment receives a spirit of justice, and the soldiers receive strength to repel the onslaught. Adam Clarke reads the gate as the enemy city gate, where the foe is driven back, and he compares Second Samuel 11:23. The Targum gives the Messiah that victory.
Isaiah 28:6
“The battle to the gate “The war to the gate of the enemy” - That is, who pursue the fleeing enemy even to the very gates of their own city. “But we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate,” 2Sa 11:23; that is, we drove the enemy back to their own gates. See also 1Sa 17:52. The Targum says, The Messiah shall give the victory to those who go out to battle, that he may bring them back to their own houses in peace.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 28:7-8
Priests and prophets reel from strong drink: The woe widens to Judah's leaders: "Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine". The men charged with judgment are "muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments". Verse 8 adds, "all their tables are covered with vomit; there is not a place without filth".
Isaiah 28:7
“There are drunkards of Jerusalem, as well as drunkards of Ephraim; and therefore the mercy of God is to be so much the more admired that he has not blasted the glory of Judah as he has done that of Ephraim. Sparing mercy lays us under peculiar obligations when it is thus distinguishing. Ephraim's sins are found in Judah, and yet not Ephraim's ruins.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
all their tables are covered with vomit: The tables are the feasting tables where the priests and prophets of verse 7 sat long over wine. Albert Barnes links the scene to the woe at Isaiah 5:11 on those who linger over wine into the evening. No clean place was left in the teachers' own houses.
Isaiah 28:8
“For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness,.... The one signifies what is spued out of a man's mouth, his stomach being overcharged, and the other his excrements; and both give a just, though nauseous, idea of a drunken man.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:8
“For all tables ... - The tables at which they sit long in the use of wine (see the note at Isa 5:11). There was no place in their houses which was free from the disgusting and loathsome pollution produced by the use of wine.”
Precept Upon Precept, and a Covenant Made with Death
Isaiah 28:9-10
Whom is He trying to teach?: Verse 10 gives what they hear, "Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there". The older writers read these words either as the drunkards mocking the prophet's preaching or as the patient way God teaches His people.
Isaiah 28:9
“Whom shall he teach knowledge?....”
Order on order and line on line render the Hebrew tsav latsav and kau lakau, short syllables repeated like a lesson for infants. Adam Clarke calls the original remarkably abrupt. The scoffers hear the message of the LORD as babble for babies just weaned from milk.
Isaiah 28:10
“For precept must be upon precept - The original is remarkably abrupt and sententious. The hemistichs are these: - לצו צו לצו צו כי latsav tsav latsav tsav ki לקו קו לקו קו lakau kau lakau kau שם זעיר שם זעיר sham zeeir sham zeeir For, - Command to command, command to command. Line to line, line to line. A little there, a little there.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:10
“Note, For our instruction in the things of God it is requisite that we have precept upon precept and line upon line, that one precept and line should be followed, and so enforced by another; the precept of justice must be upon the precept of piety, and the precept of charity upon that of justice.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 28:11-13
with mocking lips and foreign tongues: The LORD answers the mockery, "with mocking lips and foreign tongues, He will speak to this people", the speech of a foreign conqueror, Assyria. Paul quotes this verse at 1 Corinthians 14:21 on tongues as a sign to unbelievers. "Order on order" becomes their snare, and they "will go stumbling".
Isaiah 28:11
“They spoke with strange tongues and not those of their native land; and the wonder was great, a language spoken by those who had not learned it. And the sign is to them that do not believe, not to them that believe, that it may be an accusation of the unbelievers, as it is written, "With other tongues and other lips will I speak to this people, and not even so will they listen to me, says the Lord." But they heard. Here stop a little and raise a question. How are you to divide the words?”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · On Pentecost, Oration 41:15patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:11
“For - This verse is to be understood as a response to what the complaining and dissatisfied people had said, as expressed in the previous verse. God says that he will teach them, but it should be by another tongue - a foreign language in a distant land.”
Cross references
Isaiah 28:11
- Quoted in1 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.”
'With men of other tongues... will I speak' ('in the law it is written')
The place of rest is the safety the LORD offered his weary people if they would trust him. Adam Clarke reads the verse as the warning of the prophets that deliverance depended wholly on faith and obedience. The people would not listen, and they mocked the offer.
Isaiah 28:12
“This is the rest “This is the true rest” - The sense of this verse is: God had warned them by his prophets that their safety and security, their deliverance from their present calamities and from the apprehensions of still greater approaching, depended wholly on their trust in God, their faith and obedience; but they rejected this gracious warning with contempt and mockery.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the word of the LORD to them: The word of the LORD comes back to the scoffers in the very syllables they mocked. Thomas Aquinas reads it as punishment by their own words, and he cites Matthew 12:37 on being judged by what one has said. Their mockery becomes the sentence they stumble under.
Isaiah 28:13
“It should seem, they ridiculed the prophet's preaching, and bantered it. The word of the Lord was unto them Tsau latsau, kau lakau; in the original it is in rhyme; they made a song of the prophet's words, and sang it when they were merry over their wine. David was the song of the drunkards.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:13
“Third, he threatens destruction: and the word shall be to them, that is, they will suffer this punishment for their own words: by your words, I judge you, you wicked servant (Matt 12:37); that they may go, to destruction.”
Thomas Aquinas · written before 1274 · Commentary on Isaiahpatristic
Isaiah 28:14-15
O scoffers who rule this people: The rulers are named directly, "O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem". Their boast is quoted, "We have made a covenant with death", a pact they trust to keep "the overwhelming scourge" from touching them. The same verse names their confidence: "we have made lies our refuge".
Isaiah 28:14
“It is bad with a people when their thrones of judgment become the seats of the scornful, when rulers are scorners; but that the rulers of Jerusalem should be men of such a character, that they should make light of God's judgments and scorn to take notice of the tokens of his displeasure, is very sad.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Albert Barnes reads the covenant with death as the people's conduct put into words. The rulers of Jerusalem lived as securely as if death and Sheol had signed a pact to spare them from the coming scourge. Their refuge of lies was that confidence.
Isaiah 28:15
“We have made a covenant with death - We are not to suppose that they had formally said this, but that their conduct was as if they had said it; they lived as securely as if they had entered into a compact with death not to destroy them, and with hell not to devour them. The figure is a very bold one, and is designed to express the extraordinary stupidity of the nation. It is most strikingly descriptive of the great mass of people.”
A Tried Stone, a Precious Corner Stone, a Sure Foundation
Isaiah 28:16-17
I lay a stone in Zion: The Lord GOD sets His foundation: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone". First Peter 2:6 quotes the verse of Christ, and Romans 9:33 joins it to the stumbling stone of Isaiah 8:14. The promise is "the one who believes will never be shaken".
Isaiah 28:16
“Behold, I lay in Zion - See the notes on Gen 49:32; Psa 118:22 (note); Mat 21:42 (note); Act 4:11 (note); Rom 9:33 (note); Rom 10:11 (note); Eph 2:20 (note); 1Pe 2:6-8 (note). Kimchi understands this of Hezekiah; but it most undoubtedly belongs to Jesus Christ alone; and his application of it to himself, even the Jews could not contest.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:16
“This foundation is, (1.) The promises of God in general--his word, upon which he has caused his people to hope--his covenant with Abraham, that he would be a God to him and his; this is a foundation, a foundation of stone, firm and lasting, for faith to build upon; it is a tried stone, for all the saints have stayed themselves upon it and it never failed them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Cross references
Isaiah 28:16
- Quoted in1 Peter 2:6For 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.”
'Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone' ('it is contained in the scripture')
- Quoted inRomans 10:11It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
'Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed'
- Quoted inRomans 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.”
'Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone' (w/ Isa 8:14)
make justice the measuring line: The measuring line and the level are a builder's tools. Barnes explains the line and the plumb weight a carpenter uses, and he reads the image as judgment by the exact rule of the law. The stone is laid true, and every refuge of lies is tested against it.
Isaiah 28:17
“Judgment also will I lay to the line - The sense of this is, I will judge them according to the exact rule of law, as an architect frames everything according to the rule which he uses. In other words, there shall be no mercy intermingled. The line is used by a carpenter for measuring; the plummet consists of a piece of lead attached to a string, and is also used by carpenters to obtain a perpendicular line. A carpenter works exactly according to the lines which are thus indicated, or his frame would not be properly adjusted.”
Isaiah 28:18-20
Your covenant with death will be dissolved: d", and the scourge Judah thought she had escaped will trample her, sweeping through "morning after morning". To understand the message "will bring sheer terror". Verse 20 gives a proverb for the failed plan: "the bed is too short to stretch out on".
Isaiah 28:18
“Your covenant with death shall be disannulled “Your covenant with death shall be broken” - For כפר caphar, which seems not to belong to this place, the Chaldee reads תפר taphar, which is approved by Houbigant and Secker. See Jer 33:21, where the very same phrase is used. See Prelim. Dissert. p. l.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
As often as it passes through: The scourge returns like a flood that rises again every morning. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown apply it to the repeated invasions Judah suffered after the ten tribes were carried away. Even the report of it will bring terror to those who hear.
Isaiah 28:19
“From the time, &c.--rather, "As often as it comes over (that is, passes through), it shall overtake you" [HORSLEY]; like a flood returning from time to time, frequent hostile invasions shall assail Judah, after the deportation of the ten tribes. vexation . . . understand . . . report--rather, "It shall be a terror even to hear the mere report of it" [MAURER], (1Sa 3:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:19
“From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you - It shall not delay, or be hindered, or put back. As soon as the judgment is sent forth from God it shall come upon you. For morning by morning - Continually; without intermission. It shall be like floods and tempests that have no intermission; that are repeated every day, and continued every night, until everything is swept before them.”
the bed is too short to stretch out: Adam Clarke calls this line a proverb and reads the blanket through Isaiah 22:8, where the same Hebrew word names the defenses of Judah. A bed was a mattress on the floor, with a blanket to wrap around the sleeper. Their refuge of lies will cover them as poorly.
Isaiah 28:20
“For the bed is shorter - A mashal or proverbial saying, the meaning of which is, that they will find all means of defense and protection insufficient to secure them, and cover them from the evils coming upon them. מסך massek, Isa 22:8, the covering, is used for the outworks of defense, the barrier of the country; and here, in the allegorical sense, it means much the same thing. Their beds were only mattresses laid on the floor; and the coverlet a sheet, or in the winter a carpet, laid over it, in which the person wrapped himself.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 28:21-22
His strange work: The LORD will rise "as at Mount Perazim", where He gave David victory, and "as in the Valley of Gibeon", Joshua's long day. Those battles were fought for Israel, and now He will do "His strange work" and "His disturbing task" against His own people.
Isaiah 28:21
“For the Lord shall rise up - To rise up is indicative of going forth to judgment, as when one rises from his seat to accomplish anything. As in mount Perazim - There is reference here, doubtless, to the event recorded in 2Sa 5:20-21, and 1Ch 14:11, where David is said to have defeated the Philistines at Baal-Perazim. This place was near to the valley of Rephaim 2Sa 5:19, and not far from Jerusalem.”
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 28:21
“Perazim - Where he fought against the Philistines, 2 Sam. v, 20. Gibeon - Where he fought against the Canaanites, Josh. x, 10, &c. and afterwards against the Philistines, 1 Chron. xiv, 16. Strange work - For this work of bringing total destruction upon Israel, was contrary to the benignity of his own nature, and to the usual way of dealing with his people.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 28:21
“Thirdly, This will be his strange work, his strange act, his foreign deed. It is work that he is backward to: he rather delights in showing mercy, and does not afflict willingly. It is work that he is not used to as to his own people; he protects and favours them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
your shackles will become heavier: The shackles are the bonds of captivity. Every scoff makes them heavier, and Thomas Aquinas sets the verse beside Proverbs 3:34, where the LORD mocks the mockers. Isaiah speaks as a witness who has heard the sentence passed in the court of the Lord GOD of Hosts.
Isaiah 28:22
“The Lord God - אדני יהוה Adonai Jehovah. Adonai is omitted by four of Kennicott’s MSS., and in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Parable of the Plowman's God-Taught Wisdom
Isaiah 28:23-26
Listen and hear my voice: The chapter turns from woe to parable with a call, "Listen and hear my voice". The plowman does not plow forever, for "When he has leveled its surface" he sows "caraway" and "cumin". Verse 26 credits his skill to God: "For his God instructs and teaches him properly".
Does the plowman plow for planting: The plowman breaks the soil to plant, and then he moves to the next task. Albert Barnes reads the question as a strong denial, for a farmer knows a harvest needs far more than plowing. The work of the field runs in stages.
Isaiah 28:24
“Doth the plowman ... - The question here asked implies that he does “not” plow all the day. The interrogative form is often the most emphatic mode of affirmation. All day - The sense is, does he do nothing else but plow? Is this the only thing which is necessary to be done in order to obtain a harvest? The idea which the prophet intends to convey here is this. A farmer does not suppose that he can obtain a harvest by doing nothing else but plow. There is much else to be done.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:24
“Therefore those scoffing Israelites were guilty of great folly, in flattering themselves, because of God's long patience towards them; for God will certainly take a time to thresh, and break them with his judgments, as at present he plowed and harrowed them, and so prepared them for it by his threatenings.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?: Caraway here is black cumin, a small seed used in the East to season bread and as medicine. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the plowman would sow wheat in rows and plant it sparingly to yield a larger crop. Each seed has its own place in the field.
Isaiah 28:25
“When he hath made plain ... - That is, when he has leveled, or made smooth the surface of the ground by harrowing, or rolling it. Doth he not scatter abroad - He does not sow one kind of grain merely, but different species according to the nature of the soil, or according to his wishes in regard to a crop. The fitches - (קצח qetsach). Vulgate, Gith; a kind of cockle (Nigella Romana), an herb of sweet savor. Septuagint, Μικρόν μελάνθιον Mikron melanthion. The word ‘fitch’ denotes a small species of pea.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:25
“Nigella romana, with black seed, easily beaten out, used as a condiment and medicine in the East. So the Septuagint, "cummin" was used in the same way. cast in . . . principal wheat--rather, plant the wheat in rows (for wheat was thought to yield the largest crop, by being planted sparingly [PLINY, Natural History, 18.21]); [MAURER]; "sow the wheat regularly" [HORSLEY].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
his God instructs and teaches him: Clarke notes the nations credited the skill of the plowman to their gods, and he cites Sirach 7:15 on the Most High ordaining the work. Isaiah names the God who teaches him. The LORD who instructs the plowman also measures his own judgment.
Isaiah 28:26
“For his God doth instruct him - All nations have agreed in attributing agriculture, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences, to the invention and to the suggestions of their deities. “The Most High hath ordained husbandry, “saith the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 7:15. Namque Ceres fertur fruges, Liberque liquoris Vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaiah 28:27-29
caraway is not threshed with a sledge: The parable turns from sowing to threshing, "caraway is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod", since a sledge would crush them. "Grain for bread must be ground, but it is not endlessly threshed". Verse 29 gives the lesson, "This also comes from the LORD of Hosts".
Isaiah 28:27
“The husbandman uses the same discretion in threshing. The dill ("fitches") and cummin, leguminous and tender grains, are beaten out, not as wheat, &c., with the heavy corn-drag ("threshing instrument"), but with "a staff"; heavy instruments would crush and injure the seed. cart wheel--two iron wheels armed with iron teeth, like a saw, joined together by a wooden axle.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 28:27
“For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument - The word used here (חרוּץ chârûts) denotes properly that which is pointed or sharp, and is joined with מורג môrag in Isa 41:15 - meaning there the threshing dray or sledge; a plank with iron or sharp stones that was drawn by oxen over the grain (compare 2Sa 24:22; 1Ch 21:23). In the passage before us, several methods of threshing are mentioned as adapted to different kinds of grain, all of which are at the present time common in the East.”
Grain for bread must be ground: The cart wheels roll over the grain until it is threshed, and the horses stop before they crush it. Thomas Aquinas reads the limit as the end of punishment once it has corrected. He cites First Corinthians 9:10 on the thresher who works in hope of fruit.
Isaiah 28:28
“The bread-corn - I read ולהם velahem, on the authority of the Vulgate and Symmachus; the former expresses the conjunction ו vau, omitted in the text, by autem; the latter by δε. Bruise it with his horsemen “Bruise it with the hoofs of his cattle” - For פרשיו parashaiv, horsemen or teeth, read פרסיו perasaiv, hoofs. So the Syriac, Syrnmachus, Theodotion, and the Vulgate. The first is read with ש shin, the latter with ס samech, the pronunciation is nearly the same.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 28:28
“Observe, by the way, what pains are to be taken, not only for the earning, but for the preparing of our necessary food; and yet, after all, it is meat that perishes. Shall we then grudge to labour much more for the meat which endures to everlasting life? Christ was so; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that he might be the bread of life to us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 28:28
“Third, the ending of punishments as to those who are corrected: but the thrasher shall not thrash it for ever: he that ploughs, should plough in hope, and he that thrashes, in hope to receive fruit (1 Cor 9:10).”
Thomas Aquinas · written before 1274 · Commentary on Isaiahpatristic
wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom: Albert Barnes takes excellent in wisdom as he makes his wisdom great, and he traces the Hebrew word for sound wisdom through Job and Proverbs. The farmer's methods come from the LORD. So do the measured judgments the parable pictures.
Isaiah 28:29
“His object in sending tribulation (derived from the Latin tribulum, a "threshing instrument," Lu 22:31; Ro 5:3) is to sever the moral chaff from the wheat, not to crush utterly; "His judgments are usually in the line of our offenses; by the nature of the judgments we may usually ascertain the nature of the sin" [BARNES].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 118 and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.