Isaiah 28:9
in Isaiah 28Whom is He trying to teach? To whom is He explaining His message? To infants just weaned from milk? To babies removed from the breast?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand the message? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?
KJV
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.
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This verse in Isaiah 28
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
whom shall he teach knowledge? - This verse commences a statement respecting another form of sin that prevailed among the people of Judah. That sin was contempt for the manner in which God instructed them by the prophets, and a disregard for his communications as if they were suited to children and not to adults. That “scoffing” was the principal sin aimed at in these verses, is apparent from Isa 28:
This site's exposition
Whom is He trying to teach
on Isaiah 28:9-10
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.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Septem Donis, Collation 8 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
"Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand the message? Those weaned from milk and drawn away from the breasts." We dispose ourselves to receive the gift of understanding through holiness of life. Milk signifies the sweetness of carnal delights, by …
639. Second, he threatens the punishment of blindness: whom shall he teach? Hence the question is first set out, whom shall he teach knowledge? As if to say: why have you spurned knowledge? The hearing, namely, what I heard from the Lord. Second, the answer …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
What method they took, in pursuance of this design. They left no means untried to do them good, but taught them as children are taught, little children that are beginning to learn, that are taken from the breast to the book (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
), for among the Jews it was common for mothers to nurse their children till they were three years old, and almost ready to go to school. And it is good to begin betimes with children, to teach them, as they are capable, the good knowledge of the Lord, and to instruct them even when they are but newly weaned from the milk.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
): nay, one would choose rather to teach a child of two years old than undertake to teach them; for they have not only (like such a child) no capacity to receive what is taught them, but they are prejudiced against it.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Whom shall he teach knowledge?....
The rulers of Jerusalem are reproved and threatened for their insolent contempt of God's judgments, and setting them at defiance; and, after a gracious promise of Christ and his grace, they are made to know that the vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God with which they flattered themselves would certainly deceive them,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Whom shall he teach knowledge?” Whom, say they, would he teach knowledge?” - The scoffers mentioned below, Isa 28:14, are here introduced as uttering their sententious speeches; they treat God’s method of dealing with them, and warning them by his prophets, with contempt and derision. What, say they, doth he treat us as mere infants just weaned? doth he teach us like little children, perpetually inculcating the same elementary lessons, the mere rudiments of knowledge; precept after precept, line after line, here and there, by little and little? imitating at the same time, and ridiculing, in Isa 28:10, the concise prophetical manner. God, by his prophet, retorts upon them with great severity their own contemptuous mockery, turning it to a sense quite different from what they intended. Yes, saith he, it shall be in fact as you say; ye shall be taught by a strange tongue and a stammering lip; in a strange country; ye shall be carried into captivity by a people whose language shall be unintelligible to you, and which ye shall be forced to learn like children. And my dealing with you shall be according to your own words: it shall be command upon command for your punishment; it shall be line upon line, stretched over you to mark your destruction, (compare 2Ki 21:13); it shall come upon you at different times, and by different degrees, till the judgments, with which from time to time I have threatened you, shall have their full accomplishment. Jerome seems to have rightly understood the general design of this passage as expressing the manner in which the scoffers, by their sententious speeches, turned into ridicule the warnings of God by his prophets, though he has not so well explained the meaning of the repetition of their speech in Isa 28:13. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Surely, they were commanded to do the law; but what they were commanded, they were not willing to do. The prophets prophesied unto them, that if they would repent, it should be forgiven them; but they did not obey the words of the prophets: they walked after the desire of their soul, neither did they desire to do my law.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| מִי֙ | mi | whom? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| יוֹרֶ֣ה | yoreh | will he teach | H3384 → | 80 times |
| דֵעָ֔ה | deah | knowledge | H1844 → | |
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| מִ֖י | mi | whom? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| יָבִ֣ין | yavin | will he make understand | H995 → | 170 times |
| שְׁמוּעָ֑ה | shemuah | [the] message | H8052 → | 27 times |
| גְּמוּלֵי֙ | gemulei | [those] weaned | H1580 → | 37 times |
| מֵֽחָלָ֔ב | mechalav | from milk | H2461 → | 44 times |
| עַתִּיקֵ֖י | ʾatikei | [ones] removed | H6267 → | |
| מִשָּׁדָֽיִם׃ | mishadayim | from breasts | H7699 → | 24 times |
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
מִי֙whom?
miH4310 →423 times
יוֹרֶ֣הwill he teach
yorehH3384 →80 times
דֵעָ֔הknowledge
deahH1844 →
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
מִ֖יwhom?
miH4310 →423 times
יָבִ֣יןwill he make understand
yavinH995 →170 times
שְׁמוּעָ֑ה[the] message
shemuahH8052 →27 times
גְּמוּלֵי֙[those] weaned
gemuleiH1580 →37 times
מֵֽחָלָ֔בfrom milk
mechalavH2461 →44 times
עַתִּיקֵ֖י[ones] removed
ʾatikeiH6267 →
מִשָּׁדָֽיִם׃from breasts
mishadayimH7699 →24 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 12:38This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
it leads to
- Isaiah 53:1
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
- Romans 10:16
But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”
- Isaiah 53:1
Through
Matthew 11:25At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
it leads to
- Matthew 21:16
“Do You hear what these children are saying?” they asked. “Yes,” Jesus answered. “Have you never read: ‘From the mouths of children and infants You have ordained praise’?”
- Psalms 8:2
From the mouths of children and infants You have ordained praise on account of Your adversaries, to silence the enemy and avenger.
- Matthew 16:17
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven.
- Luke 10:21–24
At that time Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them…
- 1 Corinthians 1:18–29
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
- Matthew 21:16
Through
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.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 8; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.