Isaiah 28:10

10 "For He says, '¹Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.' "

Isaiah 28:10 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 28:10

For precept [must be] upon precept, precept upon precept,
&c.] Signifying, that they must be dealt with as children were, when first instructed in the rudiments of a language, first had one rule given them, and then another, and so one after another till they had gone through the whole: line upon line, line upon line;
who are taught first to write one line, and then another; or to draw one line, and write after that, and then another; or where to begin one line, and, when finished, where to begin another; for the allusion is to writing by line, and not to a line used in building, as Kimchi and Ben Melech think: here a little, [and] there a little;
a small lesson out of one book, and a small lesson out of another; a little one day, and a little on the next, and so on, that their memories may not be overburdened.

Isaiah 28:10 In-Context

8 For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.

9 "To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast?

10 "For He says, 'Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.' "

11 Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,

12 He who said to them, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," And, "Here is repose," but they would not listen.

Cross References

• 1. 2 Chronicles 36:15; Nehemiah 9:30

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb "Sav lasav, sav lasav, Kav lakav, kav lakav, Ze' er sham, ze' er sham" These Hebrew monosyllables, imitating the babbling of a child, mock the prophet's preaching