Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious adornment, which is on the head of the fat valley of them that are overcome with wine.
Isaiah opens this chapter with a woe against Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel. The verse raises three questions the chapter goes on to answer: who these drunkards are, what their drunkenness stands for, and whether any crown survives the coming storm.
The name in the verse is not a single tribe only. Commentators read it as the standard prophetic label for the northern kingdom.
Here we have a clear vision of the terrible blow that is to fall on Ephraim. Ephraim is not only the name of one tribe. It is also the usual name for the ten tribes who gathered under that leading tribe. Judah and Ephraim are the two chief names the prophets use again and again when they contrast the two houses of Israel.
The woe here also opens a longer section:
Isaiah 28 to 35: five woes on unfaithful Israel. It ends with deliverance from the Assyrian and from the alliance of nations, and with the joy of the kingdom.
The word "drunkards" points to more than a habit at the table. It describes a whole moral condition.
We must not take this drunkenness in a merely literal sense. It stands for their wildly excited, dazed and senseless state. They had given themselves up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. Drunkenness among men has frightful natural effects. In a wide moral sense, that will be the condition of these proud, unfeeling men of Ephraim.
The verse names the first target of judgment: pride joined to soft living. That mixture also shapes what a person can hear.
The first thing judged is the crown of pride, the carelessness of luxury. It leaves a man drunk and blind. God raises up the Assyrian, a mighty and strong one, against those who had given themselves over to pride and excess… Pride, ease, luxury and the world's empty glory stop the word from striking the conscience. But for the poor, despised, afflicted remnant, God is their resource and strength, and becomes a crown of glory.
The storm and flood of the next verse are not weather. They are an army.
First the prophet turns to Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes — verses 1 to 13. They were debased as drunkards, and yet they wore pride as a crown. Against them the Lord would bring "a mighty and strong one," like a destroying storm or flood. This is surely the Assyrian army.
The verse calls this beauty a fading flower. Against it the chapter sets a crown that does not fade, given to those left after the flood has passed.
Ephraim is invaded as by an overflowing flood, by a storm of hail that strikes and destroys. He is trampled underfoot. But in that day the LORD will be a crown of glory to the remnant of His people.
Kelly argues that history has never matched the scale of this judgment. So the woe still waits:
The ten tribes were swept away early. Later the two tribes were carried off to Babylon, and only a small remnant of Judah came out of it. So the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. What has not happened must still happen… To the believer the fulfilment is future and certain.
The woe is not the last word of the chapter. God had already prepared a resource of His own.
Israel's moral condition was very low when Isaiah wrote… The time was coming fast when they would be punished for their sins and carried into captivity. The prophet saw the rulers of Judah at Jerusalem as "scornful men." They wrongly imagined that they would escape the judgment God was bringing. There would have been no hope for Israel or Judah if God had not kept hidden resources in Christ. The prophet now reveals them: "Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: 'Whoever believes will not be in haste.'"
- Crown one — pride. The woe falls on Ephraim, the ten tribes as a whole, and the first thing judged is the crown of pride worn over a life of ease.
- The blindness. Drunkenness here pictures a dazed, self-indulgent state. Pride and luxury keep God's word from reaching the conscience.
- The storm. What comes against that crown is "a mighty and strong one" — an army described as hail, tempest and flood.
- The flower. The beauty on the head of the rich valley is already fading. Nothing worn by pride outlasts the judgment.
- Crown two — glory. After the flood, the LORD Himself becomes a crown of glory to the remnant, resting on the tested stone God had laid in Zion.
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, as a storm of hail [and] a destroying tempest; as a storm of mighty waters overflowing, shall he cast down to the earth with might.
Isaiah 28 opens with a "woe" against the proud drunkards of Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel. This verse names the force that will fall on them — and commentators ask who this "mighty and strong one" is, and how far the picture reaches.
The intoxication of Ephraim in verse 1 is not simply a matter of wine. It stands for a whole condition of soul that invites the blow described in verse 2.
We should not take the drunkenness here in a merely literal sense. It pictures their state — terribly excited, dulled, and senseless — given over to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. Drunkenness among men brings frightful natural effects. In a large moral sense, that will be the condition of these proud, unfeeling men of Ephraim. Whenever it is fulfilled, it will clearly be in Israel itself.
The verse does not say a strong one arises, but that the Lord has one. The destroyer is God's, raised up and aimed at a particular sin.
God judges the crown of pride first — the carelessness of luxury that leaves man drunk and blind. He raises up the Assyrian, a mighty and strong one, against those who had given themselves over to pride and excess. … Pride, ease, luxury, and the world's empty glory keep the word from striking the conscience.
Hail has a settled meaning in Scripture. It shows who is acting when the storm falls.
Hail means a sudden, sharp, and overwhelming judgment from above. God Himself carries it out.
The second image is water that overflows. The prophets use it with a settled meaning.
A flood or overflow is a figure well known in the prophets. They use it for overwhelming destruction by invading hostile armies. See, for example, Isaiah 8:7-8; Isaiah 10:22; Isaiah 28:2, 15; Jeremiah 47:2; Daniel 11:22, 26.
A nation God uses is not therefore a nation God approves. The same hand that lifts the rod later deals with it.
God uses the pride and wickedness of the wicked to discipline His people. Afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorifies himself against God, who breaks the rod.
Commentators see more here than ancient history. The storm from the north pictures an invasion still to come.
So the Assyrian is first pictured as a hailstorm coming down from the north on Ephraim — "a mighty and strong one." He is the "king of the north," as Daniel 11:40 last describes him.
The chapter also shows what the rulers in Jerusalem do when the blow falls on Ephraim.
The scourge comes from the north. An overflowing torrent invades Ephraim, with a tempest of hail that strikes and destroys. He is trodden under foot. … In Jerusalem they had made a covenant with death and the powers of darkness, so that they might escape the overflowing torrent. But the covenant will be cancelled, and the scourge will overtake them.
The chapter opens with a crown that fades and is trampled. It does not end there. A different crown appears for those left after the tempest has done its work.
Yet even so, there would still be a "residue of His people." Their crown would not be a crown of pride but a crown of glory — the Lord Himself.
- Cause. The crown is a crown of pride, and the drunkenness pictures a people dulled by self-indulgence. Pride and ease keep God's word from reaching the conscience.
- Agent. The storm is not blind weather. The Lord has a mighty and strong one; God raises up the Assyrian against the very sin He names.
- Figures. Hail means a sudden judgment sent from above. The flood is the prophets' picture of invading armies.
- Limit. God uses the wicked to discipline His people. Then He breaks the rod that boasts against Him.
- Outcome. The crown of pride falls and is trodden down. A remnant of His people wears a crown of glory — the Lord Himself.
The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet;
Isaiah 28 opens with a woe over Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel. Verse 3 turns that woe into a verdict, and raises three questions: what is this crown, whose feet trample it, and what is left when it falls?
The crown here is not jewellery. It is pride, tied to a way of life that had dulled the nation's senses.
The first thing judged is the crown of pride, the carelessness of luxury. It leaves a man intoxicated and blind. God raises up the Assyrian, a mighty and strong one, against those who had given themselves over to pride and excess.
Isaiah keeps calling these men drunkards. The word covers far more than strong drink.
We should not take drunkenness here in a merely literal sense. It pictures their state: wildly excited, dazed and senseless. They had given themselves up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. Drink has frightful effects on people. In a wide moral sense, that is what these proud, senseless men of Ephraim will be like. Whenever this comes true, it will clearly fall on Israel itself.
The verse does not say whose feet do the treading. One writer names the power God sent.
First Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, came before him — verses 1-13. They were debased as drunkards and yet wore pride as a crown. Against them the Lord would bring "one who is mighty and strong," like a devastating storm or flood — doubtless the Assyrian army.
These chapters hold a group of woes. It matters where the group starts: not with Israel's enemies, but with Israel.
In this group of "Woes" the Holy Spirit begins not with the Assyrian but with Ephraim, or Samaria, in Isaiah 28. Nothing could be more morally fitting. The Lord cannot overlook the evil of His own people. He must judge it, if He is about to put down their enemies without sparing them. The crown of pride shall be trodden down under a destroying tempest; and so it was.
Commentators differ over how far the passage reaches. Some read the trampling as fulfilled in Isaiah's own day. Others see Isaiah 28 pointing on to a later alliance that will not save those who make it.
It is very probable that, up to the beginning of the last half week, the apostate power will join with the Jews. Isaiah 28 seems to show it. This will not save them from the destroyer either, as that passage shows.
The same pride that brought the woe also kept the warning from getting through.
Pride, ease, luxury and the world's empty glory stop the word from striking the conscience. But for the poor, despised, afflicted remnant, God is their resource and strength, and He becomes a crown of glory. It is very possible that the people of God will be despised until then.
Verse 3 is not the end of the story. Two verses later a second crown appears, and it takes the place of the one trodden down.
So let the proud crown be trodden underfoot (Isaiah 28:3). Let the scornful religious leaders be swept away, with their refuge of lies and their agreement with Antichrist (v. 15). Then the Lord Himself will be "a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty" to the believing remnant (v. 5).
- Crown one. Ephraim wore pride, built on ease and luxury. It left them intoxicated and blind.
- Cause. Their "drunkenness" pictures a people dulled by self-indulgence. That is why the crown had to fall.
- Instrument. The foot that treads it is a storm the Lord Himself raises up: the Assyrian army sent against His own people.
- Order. The woes begin with Samaria, not Assyria. God judges evil in His own people before He puts down their enemies.
- Crown two. Pride keeps the word from reaching the conscience. When that crown falls, the Lord Himself becomes a crown of glory to the remnant.
and the fading flower of his glorious adornment which is on the head of the fat valley shall be like an early fig before the summer as soon as he that seeth it perceiveth it, scarcely is it in his hand, he swalloweth it down.
Isaiah's woes open with God's own people, not with a foreign empire. The fading flower of this verse raises three questions: who Ephraim is, what the drunkenness stands for, and when the blow falls.
The name in this woe is not one tribe among twelve but a whole kingdom.
Here we have a clear vision of the terrible blow that is to fall on Ephraim. Ephraim is not only the name of one tribe. It is also the general name for the ten tribes who gathered under that leading tribe. Judah and Ephraim are the two chief titles the prophets use again and again to contrast the two houses of Israel.
Before Isaiah turns on Israel's enemies, he turns on Israel. That order is deliberate.
In this group of "Woes" the Holy Spirit begins with perfect moral fitness. He starts not with the Assyrian, but with Ephraim or Samaria in Isaiah 28, and with Jerusalem — Ariel, the lion of God — in Isaiah 29. The Lord cannot overlook the evil of His own people. He must judge it, if He is about to put down their enemies without sparing them.
The wine here is more than a report on Ephraim's drinking.
We should not take the drunkenness here in a literal sense only. It stands for the state they were in — wildly excited, stupefied and senseless. They had given themselves up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God.
One writer catches the contradiction in a single line.
They were debased as drunkards and yet wore pride as a crown.
Ephraim could not hear the warning. One writer names the cause.
The first thing judged is the crown of pride, the carelessness of luxury, which leaves man drunk and blind. … Pride, ease, luxury and the world's empty glory stop the word from striking the conscience.
The comparison rests on a detail of fruit-growing — and on an image Israel already carried.
The trees bear figs at different times, so we get the expressions "first-ripe figs" and also "untimely figs." … Israel had been compared to a fig-tree bringing out its first-ripe figs (Hosea 9:10). But when the Lord was here, Israel had plenty of leaves, claiming to be God's favoured people, while producing no real fruit for Him.
Ephraim's glory is that kind of fruit: seen and swallowed in one motion.
One writer names the force behind the blow.
Against them the Lord would bring "a mighty and strong one," like a devastating storm or flood. This was doubtless the Assyrian army.
Commentators differ on how much of this happened in Isaiah's own day. Gaebelein ties it to the Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib, and still sees hope beyond it:
The first woe falls on the ten tribes, Ephraim. The judgment is the one that fell on them through the invasion of Sennacherib. Yet glory is also in store for the scattered, so-called lost tribes. A remnant will return.
Kelly presses the other way, arguing from what history delivered:
The ten tribes were swept away early on. Later the two tribes were carried off to Babylon, and only a small remnant of Judah came back. So the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled; and what has not happened yet still must.
The woe does not end the chapter. Verse 5 answers the crown of verse 1 with another crown.
Yet even so, there would still be a "residue of His people." They would wear not a crown of pride but a crown of glory, found in the Lord Himself.
- Crown — The woe falls on Ephraim, the ten tribes, and it strikes pride first: a garland worn by men already sinking.
- Cup — The drunkenness is more than literal. It pictures a stupefied, self-indulgent people living to the dishonour of the true God.
- Deafness — Pride, ease and luxury stop the word from reaching the conscience.
- Fig — Their beauty is an early fig: noticed and swallowed in one motion, while the Lord brings "a mighty and strong one" against them. Commentators differ: did the Assyrian invasion finish this, or is the full fulfilment still ahead?
- Crown again — What pride wore and lost, the Lord Himself becomes for the remnant — a crown of glory that no storm strips off.
In that day will Jehovah of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the remnant of his people;
Isaiah 28 opens with a warning against proud, comfortable Ephraim, whose beauty is a flower already fading. Verse 5 turns the picture around: God Himself becomes the crown — but which day is "that day," and who are the "remnant" who wear it?
The chapter sets two crowns side by side. God's crown appears only after He has crushed the crown of pride.
God judges the crown of pride first — the careless luxury that leaves a man drunk and blind. He raises up the Assyrian, a mighty and strong one, against people who had given themselves over to pride and excess… After this judgment everything changes. Jehovah becomes a crown of glory, and a spirit of strength for the remnant (vv. 5, 6). Pride, ease, luxury, and the world's empty glory keep the word from reaching the conscience. But for the poor, despised, afflicted remnant, God is their resource and strength, and becomes a crown of glory. It is very possible that God's people will be despised until then.
The word behind "diadem" is a priest's headdress. It appears again where God strips a ruler of that headgear until the rightful King comes.
The word is mitsnepheth. Translated 'diadem', it appears again in a striking reference to the "profane wicked prince of Israel." That name belongs to Zedekiah, the king of the time. Yet it seems to point on to the future Antichrist together with the Roman beast. He is shown wearing both the priest's headdress and the crown, and God will remove them. God will overturn, overturn, "until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him." Ezekiel 21:25-27. This agrees with Isaiah 28:5. In Zechariah 3:1-8 Joshua the high priest stands for the people. God rescues him from Satan's opposition, cleanses him, sets a clean headdress on his head (tsaniph, a word related to the one above), and clothes him. Then the Lord Jesus comes forth as the Branch, and blessing follows.
One writer places "that day" after a judgment still to come.
Isaiah 28 shows us the first parts of these final scenes in the history of this remarkable people. The scourge comes from the north. It sweeps over Ephraim like an overflowing torrent… But in that day Jehovah shall be a crown of glory to the residue of His people… There they had made a covenant with death and the powers of darkness, so that they might escape the overflowing torrent. But the covenant will be cancelled… The Messiah is the chosen corner-stone, the sure foundation for the remnant. Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.
The promise is not made to the nation at large but to a leftover group, and what makes their crown different is where it is found.
Even so, there would still be a "residue of His people." They would have no crown of pride, but a crown of glory in the Lord Himself. Most of the people had gone wrong through wine and stumbled in judgment. But these would be like little children, learning a little at a time, step by step.
One writer explains why the verse still waits. Israel refused the One who was to be that crown, and blessing went instead to people who had no promises.
Christ came, in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen. He came as Heir of them all, to establish those promises for the people whose fathers received them — the Jews. He was rejected. So instead of becoming the "crown of glory… to the residue of his people" (Isaiah 28:5), the Heir of glory goes on high. The poor Gentile believer, who had no promises, comes in on the footing of pure mercy, not promise. As we read, "that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy" (Romans 15:9). For that believer it is not the "crown of glory," but "the hope of glory."
One writer links this crown with the crowns promised to believers now.
And so I think we are not wrong in supposing that each of the crowns He promises His people today tells us of Christ our Lord. And I think Revelation 4:10 shows what His saints will do with those crowns that He gives them in His grace. The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne. They worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne and say, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power." What a joy it will be in that day, if we have a crown to cast before Him!
- Crown crushed — God first judges Ephraim's crown of pride. Only then does His own crown appear.
- Crown given — the remnant do not make this glory. The LORD of hosts Himself becomes their crown and their strength.
- Crown of the priest — "diadem" is the priest's headdress. The same word marks a ruler stripped of his headgear until the rightful King comes.
- Crown for the few — it belongs to a remnant, people who may be despised until that day, learning little by little.
- Crown returned — Israel rejected Christ as its crown of glory, so He became the Gentiles' hope of glory. Every crown He gives is cast back before His throne.
and for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
Isaiah's first woe falls on the proud leaders of Ephraim, and then the tone turns. The Lord Himself becomes a crown to the remnant, and verse 6 adds two gifts: clear judgment for the judge, and strength for the men at the gate.
The opening verses show pride and luxury bringing judgment on Ephraim. One writer traces the turn that follows, and says why it lands on the remnant and not on the comfortable.
After this judgment there is a change, and the Lord becomes a crown of glory, and a spirit of strength for the remnant (v. 5, 6). Pride, ease, luxury and the world's empty glory keep the word from reaching the conscience. But for the poor, despised, afflicted remnant, God is their resource and strength, and He becomes a crown of glory. It is very possible that God's people will be despised until then.
Both halves of the verse land in the same place — the gate. In Israel's towns the gate was much more than a way in.
Besides the ordinary use of gates to protect a city, 'in the gate' was the place where people settled many important matters. When Boaz wanted the question about Ruth and the inheritance settled, he went up to the gate. He talked it over with a closer relative, closed the matter, and the elders witnessed it... To 'sit in the gate' was a place of honour: "those who sit in the gate speak against me." Ps. 69:12. It should have been the place of true judgment and justice, but it was not always so. Isa. 29:21; Amos 5:10, 12; Zech. 8:16... From this the gate became a symbol of power.
So the two gifts match the two things done at the gate. Judges hear cases there. Defenders hold the city there. God supplies the wisdom for the first and the strength for the second. The gate should have been the place of true justice, and often it was not. Verse 6 promises the day when God Himself supplies what was missing.
The crown in verse 5 is not a reward the remnant produces; it is the Lord Himself, set directly against the crown the nation had made for itself.
Yet even so, there would be found a "residue of His people," who would have not a crown of pride but a crown of glory, in the Lord Himself.
The same point is put as a sequence — the false must go before the true can appear.
Let the "crown of pride," then, be trodden under the foot (Isa. 28:3). Let the scornful religious leaders, with their refuge of lies and their agreement with Antichrist, be swept away (v. 15), so that the Lord Himself may be "for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the believing remnant" (v. 5).
Ephraim was the northern kingdom of ten tribes. The Assyrian invasion Isaiah announced did come in his own day. But writers read the promise of verses 5 and 6 as reaching much further.
The first woe falls on the ten tribes, Ephraim. The judgment is the one that fell on them through the invasion of Sennacherib. Yet glory is also in store for the scattered, so-called, lost tribes. A remnant will return. Verse 5 describes this glory.
The same writer sets a limit on that first fulfillment.
The prophecy here and in the later chapters was by no means fulfilled when the Assyrian came into Israel's land. Its greater fulfillment is in the future, when the Assyrian invades Israel's land once more.
If the crown God gives is Himself, every crown He gives points the same way. One writer follows that thought to a scene in Revelation.
I think we are not wrong to suppose that each of the crowns He promises His people today tells us of Christ our Lord. And I think Revelation 4:10 shows us what His saints will do with those crowns He so graciously gives them: "The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne."
- Crown removed. Pride, ease and luxury had given the nation a crown of its own making. That crown had to go first.
- Crown given. What replaces it is not a better version of the old glory. It is the Lord Himself, a crown of glory to the remnant of His people.
- Crown applied. The gate was where judges heard cases and defenders held the city. There He becomes the wisdom of the judge and the strength of the fighter.
- Crown for the despised. He gives it to the poor, afflicted remnant, not to the comfortable. Until that day, God's people may well be despised.
- Crown returned. Every crown He gives speaks of Christ. At the end, the elders cast their crowns before the throne in worship.
But these also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are they gone astray. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink; they are overpowered by wine, they are gone astray through strong drink; they have erred in vision, they have stumbled [in] judgment.
Isaiah 28 opens with a woe on the drunkards of Ephraim, and by this verse the staggering has reached the priest and the prophet. The question is whether the men who were meant to see God's mind and to judge His people can still do either.
The wine here means more than heavy drinking. One commentator reads it as a picture of a whole moral state:
We should not take this drunkenness in its merely literal sense. It stands for their state: terribly excited, dazed and drunken, given up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. Drunkenness among men has frightful natural effects. In a large moral sense, that is what the condition of these proud, senseless men of Ephraim will be.
One writer traces the chain from drink to failure:
Wine and strong drink cause excitement; as a result they err and they stumble.
The shock of the verse is who is named. Not the crowd, but the priest and the prophet. Each fails at his own work: one errs in vision, the other stumbles in giving judgment. One writer traces that failure back to the first priest:
When Israel turned away from God, the priests should still have kept knowledge on their lips. Instead they led the people into error and sin. Their father Aaron did the same. Before his anointing came, he built an altar to serve the people's sin, showing that he was unfit to serve in the Lord's sanctuary. And at the very opening of the tabernacle worship, the fire of God's jealousy consumed his two eldest sons. So now, while the nation ripened in its evil growth, both priest and prophet had erred alike.
Wine had long been shut out of the sanctuary, and one writer explains why:
"Wine" and "strong drink" — all that excites the flesh — must be put away. It does not belong to the clean spiritual understanding and judgment that fit those who go into the sanctuary.
The same rule reaches believers today:
This principle still holds. A believer may forget his heavenly calling and give in to the enjoyment of earthly pleasures. He is then "drunk with wine" instead of being "filled with the Spirit." He cannot tell the difference between things that differ, or see what is morally suitable to God. There is no greater mistake than to expect a right judgment on moral questions from worldly Christians. They may be completely sincere and upright. They may even want to see the truth. But they have lost their spiritual discernment.
Refusing light also has a cost that grows. One writer states the rule:
When men resist the light, the blindness that follows is all the greater, because it matches the light they refused. If a man receives the first testimony, more is always added. For it is given to him who has, and he shall have more abundantly.
The chapter does not end in staggering. Against the many who reel with wine, God keeps a remnant, and pride is not their mark:
Even so, there should still be found a "residue of His people." They should have not a crown of pride but a crown of glory, in the Lord Himself. The mass of the people had reeled with wine and stumbled in giving judgment. But these should be like little children, who learn a little at a time, step by step.
- Drink — the drunkenness is a picture. It shows a people given up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, and dazed by it.
- Duty — wine was shut out of the sanctuary for a reason. Whatever excites the flesh ruins the clean judgment a priest needs there.
- Damage — excitement makes men err and stumble. Here it is the priests, whose lips should have kept knowledge for everyone else.
- Darkness — refused light does not stay neutral. The blindness that follows matches the light refused.
- Deliverance — God still keeps a remnant, crowned with glory in the Lord Himself. Their mark is not a crown of pride but a readiness to learn a little at a time, like children.
For all tables are full of filthy vomit, so that there is no [more] place.
Isaiah's woe against Ephraim starts with the pride of its leaders. It ends with the mess their drinking has left: every table fouled, no clean space anywhere. Two questions follow. What sort of drunkenness does the prophet mean? And what will God do with a people whose priests and prophets are in this state?
One writer warns against reading this drunkenness as nothing more than literal drinking.
We should not take this drunkenness in a merely literal sense. It stands for their wildly excited, dazed and senseless state. They had given themselves up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. What drunkenness is among men, with its horrible natural effects, that is what these proud, unfeeling men of Ephraim will be like in a wide moral sense.
These fouled tables belong to God's own people. The same writer notes where this run of woes starts, and why God begins there rather than with Israel's enemies.
In this group of woes the Holy Spirit begins in exactly the right place. He starts, not with the Assyrian, but with Ephraim, or Samaria, in Isaiah 28. Then He turns to Jerusalem — Ariel, the lion of God — in Isaiah 29. The Lord cannot overlook the evil of His own people. He must judge it, if He is about to put down their enemies without mercy... But even the remnant went wrong, priest and prophet alike. Self-indulgence leaves them unwilling to hear the word of the LORD, however He may come to His people.
Why does a people stay in this state? One commentator shows what happens when people resist the light God gives.
Resistance brings blindness on those who resist. The blindness is all the greater because it matches the light they refused... The more God shows Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition shows itself... The flesh always wants to keep enjoying its desires, and would harden the conscience against the testimony God sends.
The verses that follow show God teaching in the smallest possible steps, as to a child. That patience had been wasted, so a harsher voice was coming.
God had met their weakness and fed them with baby food, but all in vain... He would not correct them now with the childlike teaching they had despised. Instead He would whip them with the strange speech of enemies. They would not have His words of rest for the weary, so they had to hear a nation they could not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
One writer names what keeps the word from reaching a comfortable conscience, and who receives the true crown instead.
Pride, ease, luxury, and the world's vain glory keep the word from striking the conscience; but for the poor, despised, afflicted remnant, God is their resource and strength, and becomes a crown of glory. It is quite possible that the people of God should be despised until then.
The same loss can strike anyone. One writer describes a believer who breaks no rule and still cannot judge as God judges.
So I stay away from everything that works on the flesh, and I stay near God. In the sanctuary I learn His mind, and I am able to "distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean." Then I can teach others too... But have we not often found that we cannot judge according to the mind of God, even where we have broken no rule? That is a spiritual incompetence. Sadly, my friends, we have been content to "drink wine and strong drink," and so our spiritual faculties have grown dark.
- Drink — the wine stands for a whole condition. These men were dazed and senseless, living for their own pleasure at God's expense.
- Filth — the fouled tables belong to God's own people. Even the priest and the prophet had gone astray, and self-indulgence left them unwilling to hear Him.
- Blindness — the flesh hardens the conscience against the testimony God sends. Light refused comes back as blindness in the same measure.
- Discipline — they despised His childlike teaching. So His next word to them came in the strange speech of an invading enemy.
- Crown — ease and empty glory keep the word from reaching the conscience. To the poor, despised remnant the Lord Himself becomes a crown of glory.
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the report? Them that are weaned from the milk, withdrawn from the breasts?
This question comes right after a scene of priests and prophets staggering in drink. It asks who can be taught at all, and the answer is startling: babies just off the breast. Commentators read it as God's own beginner's teaching, given to a people who could take nothing more — and they follow what happens when even that is refused.
Strong drink had left Judah's priests and prophets confused. They erred in vision and stumbled in judgment. God met them where they were.
In vain had God met their weakness, and fed them with infants' food.
Another writer ties this teaching directly to Israel's departure from God.
When Israel departs from God, God sends, as to children, precept upon precept, line upon line.
Against the drunken crowd stands a smaller group. The verse names them: those weaned from milk. They are the ones who can still be taught.
Yet even so, a remnant of His people would still be found. They would wear not a crown of pride but a crown of glory, in the Lord Himself. Most of the people had gone astray through wine and stumbled in judgment. But this remnant would be like little children, who learn a little at a time, step by step.
What sounds like an insult is also God's normal way of teaching. Here the teacher is the Lord Himself, working by His Spirit.
So we may accept that now, as then, there are stages of growth in the divine life. God unfolds His word to each believer to suit their differing capacity. When the Lord by His Spirit teaches knowledge and makes people understand wisdom, He does not hand over a tidy, finished system of theology. He gives the truth a bit at a time: "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little" (Isa. 28:9-10).
A nursing child takes everything through someone else. A weaned child learns to feed. One writer turns that picture on believers who lean too much on other people.
Is this not the secret of much of our stunted growth, our lack of spiritual strength and discernment? Does it not explain the way we hang on others, accept leaders without thinking, and follow the crowd? We must use what God gives us for the good of others. We must be exercised at every step of our path. We must be weaned from depending even on the best of people (Isa. 28:9). Without that, how can we learn, or grow, or become strong? We cannot. We must learn to find Christ enough.
They slighted that simple teaching and would not have it. So God spoke to them again — this time through the speech of an invading army.
Another dealing is needed, and it will surely follow… They had slighted that childlike instruction, so He would not whip them with it. He would whip them with the foreign speech of enemies instead. They would not have His words of rest for the weary, so they had to hear a nation they could not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
This is not only Israel's story. The same rule holds wherever God gives light.
When people resist, the result is blindness — and it is all the greater because it matches the light they refused. If someone receives the first testimony, more is always added. To him that has, more is given, and he shall have more abundance… Those who receive the first grace receive all the rest, right up to glory, and go from strength to strength.
Paul later quotes the verses that follow this one.
The prophet goes on to show that God might stoop to deal in this simple way with most of the people. He might even use stammering lips and another tongue. Yet they refuse to hear, and they are broken. The Apostle Paul refers to this passage in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22, to show that tongues are a sign to unbelievers rather than believers.
- Milk. Drink had left the priests and prophets stumbling. So God fed His people the food of infants. He met their weakness instead of matching their pride.
- Weaning. He teaches the weaned. They no longer lean on others, not even on the best of people. They find Christ enough.
- Degrees. God's normal method is not a finished system, handed over at once. He gives truth by stages, suited to what each believer can take.
- Refusal. Light received brings more light. Light refused brings a deeper blindness.
- Strange tongues. The people who would not hear the simple lesson heard the speech of invaders instead. Paul takes up that same word: tongues are a sign for unbelievers.
For [it is] precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little. ...
Isaiah 28 opens with a woe against the drunkards of Ephraim. By verse 9, priests and prophets who cannot think straight are sizing up the prophet's message. Verse 10 is the sound of that message reduced to a nursery rhyme — and commentators read the jingle in more than one way.
One writer insists the drink language means more than literal drunkenness:
We should not take the drunkenness here in a merely literal sense. It stands for their wildly excited, dazed and stupefied state. They are given up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. Drunkenness among men has frightful natural effects. In a wide moral sense, that will be the condition of these proud, senseless men of Ephraim.
God stooped to the hearers' level, and it changed nothing:
God had met their weakness and fed them with infants' food, but it was all in vain… Another dealing is needed, and will surely follow.
Commentators differ on whose voice speaks verse 10. Some hear God Himself, dealing with a straying people the way a parent deals with a small child:
When Israel departs from God, God sends, as to children, precept upon precept, line upon line… God cannot stop bearing witness until He has used up every means of bringing them back to Himself.
Others hear the leaders instead. One outline of Isaiah heads verses 9–10 as "the prophet mocked" — the repetition being their sneer at Isaiah's simple, step-by-step teaching (Arno Clemens Gaebelein). Either way, they despise the childlike teaching.
Refusing the light has a result of its own:
Resistance brings on those who resist a blindness that is all the greater, because it matches the light they refused. If someone receives the first testimony, more is always added. It is given to him who has, and he shall have more abundance… The more God shows Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition shows itself. Those who receive the first grace receive the rest until glory, and go from strength to strength.
The same phrases come back in verse 13, now as a sentence rather than a lesson:
The prophet goes on to show that God might stoop to deal in this simple way with the mass of the people. He might even use "stammering lips and another tongue." Yet they refuse to hear, and they are broken. Paul refers to this passage in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22. He shows that tongues are a sign to unbelievers rather than believers.
Another writer names what took its place:
He would not punish them with the childlike instruction they had slighted, but with the foreign speech of enemies… It was a judgment on their unbelief.
Taken positively, the verse describes how truth still reaches a believer:
So we may accept that now, as then, there are stages of growth in the divine life. God unfolds His word to each believer to suit their differing capacity. When the Lord by His Spirit teaches knowledge and makes men understand wisdom, He does not hand over a neat, finished system of doctrine. He gives the truth by degrees: "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."
One writer traces a child's hardening against Scripture back to the way it was taught:
How else can we explain a strange fact? So many children of steady Christian parents, above all their sons, grow up with an unbelievable dislike — even disgust — for everything called "religious." The natural heart's hostility to God and His Word does not explain it. That reason would apply to every child of believing parents. Is it not rather that such parents, and fathers most of all, have handed divine truth to their children in a stern, law-like spirit, as at Mount Sinai? Then "the Word of the Lord was to them precept upon precept… that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."
- Condition — The hearers are drunk in more than one sense: excited, dazed, self-indulgent, fit for nothing but the simplest teaching.
- Kindness — God met that weakness with infants' food, teaching line by line as a father teaches a small child.
- Contempt — Commentators differ. Is verse 10 God's patient method, or the leaders mocking it? Either way, they despised the simple word.
- Consequence — They refused the gentle teaching, so it came back as judgment in the foreign speech of an invading people. Paul uses the verse to show that tongues are a sign to unbelievers.
- Continuation — God still gives His word by degrees, not as a finished system. Teach it that way, and gently: a stern delivery can drive a hearer backward.
For with stammering lips and a strange tongue will he speak to this people;
Isaiah has just described priests and prophets too drunk to take in God's plain teaching. They would not listen to words they understood, so God says He will speak to them in a language they cannot follow — but whose language is it, and why?
The verses just before speak of teaching in small, repeated portions, like feeding a newly weaned child. They ignored that patient method. The strange tongue is what comes next.
God had met their weakness and fed them with infants' food, but it was all in vain… Another way of dealing with them is needed, and it will surely come… He would punish them, not with the childlike teaching they had despised, but with the foreign speech of enemies. They would not have His words of rest for the weary, so they had to have a nation whose language they did not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
Where the ESV reads "people of strange lips," older translations read "stammering lips." No other place in the Old Testament looks ahead to people speaking a language they never learned.
Speaking in other languages without having learned them does not occur in the Old Testament. Only one prophecy about it is found (Isaiah 28:11-13), and if 1 Corinthians 14:21 did not quote it with direct reference to speaking in tongues, we would probably never have connected the two. The priests and prophets in Israel were no longer open to true knowledge and God's message (v. 7-10). So God would speak to them through people whose speech they could not understand, in a strange tongue. These are their enemies, who would bring judgment on them.
Commentators differ. One reads the strange speech as God stooping to the crowd, not as the noise of an invading army:
The prophet goes on to show that God might stoop to deal with the mass of the people in this simple way, even using "stammering lips and another tongue." Yet they refuse to hear, and they are broken.
Nothing else in the Old Testament speaks of people using languages they never learned. Paul quotes these words in 1 Corinthians 14, and without that quotation the link would be easy to miss.
The Apostle quotes Isaiah 28:11-12 freely. He shows that in the day of Israel's failure, when the prophets had gone wrong, God spoke to them in the languages of foreigners. This was a sign of the unbelief of those who would not hear the plain word of God. So when the gift of tongues was used at the start of Christianity, it was a sign to unbelievers, not to believers, and it left the hearer without excuse.
The believers in Corinth preferred tongues to prophecy. Set beside what the verse first meant for Israel, that choice looks strange.
There God warns the Jews, who were slow to listen to His prophets, that He would speak to them with the stammering lips of foreigners. Such a tongue spoken to Israel was a sign of their humiliation, and of God's judgment. How wrong-headed, then, for the believers in Corinth to turn away from God speaking in prophecy to build them up, and to turn instead to tongues they could not understand! They took their pleasure as Christians in what was God's solemn threat to His ancient people.
Centuries later the same sign came back. This time the good news went out in the languages of other nations.
God would use foreign tongues to humble them, not to lift them up. He meant to wake them out of their unbelief, yet they would not hear. Now God had given Israel a fresh sign in speaking with tongues: the gospel of grace went out in the languages of other nations. This showed that the gospel was not only for Israel, but for the whole world.
Verse 13 tells what the strange tongue leads to — falling backward, breaking, being snared. The pattern is wider than Isaiah's own generation.
Resistance brings blindness on those who resist, and the greater the light they refuse, the greater the blindness. If a person receives the first testimony, more is always added… The more God shows Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition comes out. Those who receive the first grace receive the rest until glory, and go from strength to strength.
- Refusal. God had taught Israel gently, a little at a time, and they would not take it in.
- Reversal. They despised plain words, so God turned to speech they could not follow. Most read this as the voice of invading enemies. Some read it as God still stooping to their level.
- Sign. Paul uses the verse in 1 Corinthians 14. A foreign tongue was a sign for unbelievers, and it left the hearer without excuse.
- Reach. The sign came back when the gospel went out in the languages of other nations. The message was not for Israel alone.
- Result. Light refused hardens; light received grows. That is the warning and the promise carried by one strange-sounding verse.
to whom he said, This is the rest cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing. But they would not hear.
God had spoken to His people in the plainest way possible, offering them rest and relief, and they turned it down. Their refusal is why He said He would speak next through foreign lips — words Paul later quoted to correct a church that prized tongues.
The chapter opens with priests and prophets who had lost their grip on truth. God came down to their level and taught them like small children. One writer shows what followed when they refused even that.
God had met their weakness in vain and fed them with infants' food... He would whip them not with the childlike instruction they had slighted, but with the foreign tones of enemies. They would not have His words of rest for the weary; they had to have a nation whose speech they did not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
"They would not hear" is the hinge of the chapter. One writer sets out the principle behind that refusal.
Resistance brings blindness on those who resist. That blindness is all the greater because it matches the light they refused. If the first testimony is received, more is always added, for it is given to him who has, and he shall have more abundance... The more God shows Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition shows itself... No blindness is like the blindness that comes from resisting the light and holding on to your own will while it shines... Those who receive the first grace receive the rest until glory, and go from strength to strength.
If they will not hear God in words they understand, He will speak in words they cannot. The chapter's own context shows who those speakers were.
The sense of the passage becomes clear from its context. The priests and prophets in Israel were no longer open to true knowledge and the divine report (vv. 7-10). So God would speak to them through people whose speech they could not understand, in a strange tongue. These are their enemies, who would bring judgment on them. The Holy Spirit uses this passage in 1 Corinthians 14 to make clear that tongues are a sign to unbelievers and not to believers (vv. 21, 22).
The pattern did not stay in Isaiah's day. One writer sees the Lord's own ministry fulfilling these verses.
In John 9:39 the Lord fulfils Isaiah 28:9-13. The judgment is a sifting process. Compare Luke 2:34: "for the fall and rising of many in Israel," leaving men either better or worse.
Paul quotes these words in a letter about speaking in tongues. The Corinthians prized what God had sent as a threat.
Such a tongue speaking to Israel was a sign of their humiliation and of God's judgment. What perversity, then, in the saints at Corinth! They turned away from God speaking in prophecy to build them up, and turned to tongues they could not understand. They took pleasure as Christians in what God had meant as a solemn threat to His ancient people, because they stubbornly refused to listen!
Another writer follows the same refusal into the day when tongues returned as a sign.
God would use foreign tongues to humble them, not to exalt them. By this means He sought to wake them out of their unbelief. Yet they would not hear. Now God had given Israel a fresh sign in speaking with tongues. Preachers proclaimed the gospel of grace in Gentile languages. This showed that the gospel was not only for Israel but for all the world... And unbelieving Israel still would not hear.
- Offered. God met a stumbling people at their level. He fed them "infants' food" and held out rest for the weary.
- Refused. They would not hear. God held out rest, and they turned it down.
- Replaced. Instead of rest they got speech they could not understand. The tongues of enemies came to humble them, not to exalt them.
- Repeated. The refusal did not end with Isaiah. Writers trace the same sifting judgment into the Gospels, and the same deafness when tongues sounded again with the gospel.
- Reversed for faith. Refused light hardens. Received light multiplies: those who take the first grace keep receiving until glory.
And the word of Jehovah was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Isaiah 28 speaks to a people who would not listen when God taught them in the simplest way. In verse 13 that same gentle teaching becomes a trap: words meant to give rest leave them broken.
The repeated phrases of this verse appear a few lines earlier. There they describe how God fed a weak people with the simplest teaching He could give.
God had met their weakness and fed them with infants' food, but it was all in vain. … He would punish them, not with the childlike instruction they had despised, but with the foreign speech of enemies. They would not have His words of rest for the weary; they had to have a nation they did not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
This is God's answer to a people who refused to hear. One writer follows the pattern through to where it ends.
Resistance brings blindness on those who resist. That blindness is all the greater because it matches the light they refused. If people receive the first testimony, God always adds more, for to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have more in abundance. … These testimonies bring on their judgment. The more God reveals Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition shows itself. Those who receive the first grace receive the rest, right up to glory, and go from strength to strength. God did not let judgment fall on Jerusalem until Jerusalem rejected the Holy Spirit. When grace is exhausted God sends judgment.
The same writer weighs this blindness against every other kind.
No blindness is like the blindness that comes from resisting the light. It belongs to the person who stands in the light and still will not give up his own will.
Not everyone in Israel was broken by this teaching. Some learned in exactly this way.
Yet even so, a "remnant of His people" would still be found. They would have not a crown of pride but a crown of glory, in the Lord Himself. Most of the people "reel with wine" and "stumble in giving judgment." These would be like little children, who learn a little at a time, step by step. The prophet goes on to show that God might stoop to deal in this simple way with most of the people, even speaking through strange lips and a foreign tongue. Yet they refuse to hear and are broken.
One writer describes the same method at work in a believer's growth today.
There are stages of growth in the divine life. God unfolds His word to each believer to suit their changing capacity. When the Lord by His Spirit teaches knowledge and makes men understand wisdom, He does not hand over a neat, finished system of doctrine. He presents the truth by degrees, "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."
The strange language turns up again in a letter to a church that prized the gift of tongues.
The apostle quotes Isaiah to show that they were overrating the spiritual value of tongues. Because the people of Israel had turned away from Him, God would not speak to them in the language they could understand. … So why should the Corinthians be so proud of tongues? Tongues were given to catch the attention of unbelievers with something they did not understand, not to convince them of its truth.
One writer brings the verse home. He asks why children raised in believing homes so often grow up hostile to anything religious.
Is it not rather because such Christian parents, especially fathers, have taught divine truth to their children in a stern spirit of law? The result is that the word of the LORD becomes to them "precept upon precept… here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."
- Little by little — the gift. God unfolds truth by degrees. He suits it to each believer's capacity, never handing over a finished system all at once.
- Little by little — refused. Israel refused the childlike teaching. So God spoke next in the foreign speech of enemies. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
- Little by little — the trap. The same words that offered rest to the weary became the trap that made them fall backward.
- The rule behind it. Blindness matches the light refused. Those who receive the first grace receive all the rest, right up to glory.
- The application. A stern spirit can drive away the very children the truth was meant to feed.