Isaiah 28 Footnotes

28:7-13 Verse 10, often cited favorably in support of the value of consistent teaching, has a virtually opposite meaning. In Hebrew it has the repetitive, monosyllabic tone of baby talk, as the preceding verse (“Infants . . . Babies,” v. 9) suggests. It mimics the babbling of drunken priests and prophets (v. 7) who were mouthing useless instructions to the people. When the word of the Lord came back with the same babbling message (v. 13), the reference was to the undecipherable words of the wouldbe Assyrian conquerors (“stammering speech and in a foreign language,” v. 11). Isaiah was warning the Judeans that if they were receiving only the most infantile, incoherent teaching from their spiritual leaders, they would fall into the hands of an equally inco-herent enemy. Paul cited vv. 11-12 with reference to speaking in tongues (1Co 14:21), indicating that while the practice may be beneficial for believers, it is repellent to unbelievers, for whom a direct prophetic word is more convicting.

28:15,18 It makes little sense for anyone to say, “we have made a covenant with Death” (lit “make [cut] a covenant with death”) or to say, “we have made falsehood our refuge.” Isaiah was mockingly putting words in the mouths of his audience. Hezekiah’s ill-considered political agreement with Egypt to gain protection from the Assyrian attack of Sennacherib in 701 BC was stylized as a “covenant with Death” because the rulers of Judah were hoping that Egypt would rescue them from Assyria. It was a false and deceptive hope, because historically Egypt was always an unreliable ally. The phrase covenant with Death may be the background for Paul’s phrase “ministry that brought death” in 2Co 3:7, where he applied it to a false reliance on the old covenant, or law of Moses, which cannot give life (1Co 15:56-57).

28:16 Paul (Rm 9:33) and Peter (1Pt 2:6-8) applied this text in the Greek version, together with Is 8:14, to Jesus Christ. Isaiah, here, said that God and his promises are a sure foundation for the believer, who “will be unshakable.” The Greek translation takes the Hebrew verb yachish, “have haste, anxiety,” in a different sense; the NT texts following the Greek have, “will not [or never] be put to shame” and apply the idea of the “cornerstone” to Christ. Hebrew verbs are typically rich in their range of meanings, depending on their forms, and translators into another language (e.g., Eng or Gk) often have to choose words that may not incorporate the same nuances. On the application of the “precious cornerstone” to Jesus, see note on Ps 118:22.