Parallel Bible results for "isaiah 28"

Isaiah 28

The Bible in Basic English BBE

1 Ho! crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim, and the dead flower of his glory which is on the head of those who are overcome by strong drink!

2 See, the Lord has a strong and cruel one; like a rain of ice, a storm of destruction, like the overflowing of a strong river, he will violently overcome them.

3 The crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim will be crushed under foot;

4 And the dead flower of his glory, which is on the head of the fertile valley, will be like the first early fruit before the summer; which a man takes and puts in his mouth the minute he sees it.

5 In that day will the Lord of armies be a crown of glory, and a fair ornament, to the rest of his people;

6 And a spirit of wisdom to the judge, and strength to those who keep back the attackers at the door of the town.

7 And further, these are uncertain through wine, and have gone out of the right way through strong drink: the priest and the prophet are uncertain through strong drink, they are overcome by wine, they have gone out of the way through strong drink; their vision is false, they go wrong in their decisions.

8 For all the tables are covered with coughed-up food, so that there is not a clean place.

9 To whom will he give knowledge? and to whom will he make clear the word? Will it be to those who have newly given up milk, and who have only now been taken from the breast?

10 For it is one rule after another; one line after another; here a little, there a little.

11 No, but with broken talk, and with a strange tongue, he will give his word to this people:

12 To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him who is tired; and by this you may get new strength; but they would not give ear.

13 For this cause the word of the Lord will be to them rule after rule, line after line, here a little, there a little; so that they may go on their way, and falling back may be broken, and taken in the net.

14 Give ear then to the word of the Lord, you men of pride, the rulers of this people in Jerusalem:

15 Because you have said, We have made death our friend, and with the underworld we have made an agreement; when the overflowing waters come through they will not come near us; for we are looking to false words for help, taking cover in what is untrue:

16 For this cause says the Lord God, See, I am placing in Zion as a base, a stone, a tested stone, an angle-stone which is certain and of great value: and he who has faith will not give way.

17 And I will make right decision the measuring-line, and righteousness the weight: and the ice-storm will take away the safe place of false words, and the secret place will be covered by the flowing waters.

18 And the help you were looking for from death will come to nothing, and your agreement with the underworld will be broken; when the overflowing waters come through, then you will be overcome by them.

19 Whenever they come through they will overtake you; for they will come through morning after morning, by day and by night: and the news will be nothing but fear.

20 For the bed is not long enough for a man to be stretched out on: and the cover is not wide enough for him to be covered with.

21 For the Lord will come up as on Mount Perazim, he will be moved to wrath as in the valley of Gibeon; so that he may do his work--strange is his work; and give effect to his act--unnatural is his act.

22 And now, take care that you do not make sport of him, or your bands will be made strong; for I have had word from the Lord, the Lord of armies, of an end, of a complete end, which is to come on all the land.

23 Let your ears be open to my voice; give attention to what I say.

24 Is the ploughman for ever ploughing? does he not get the earth ready and broken up for the seed?

25 When the face of the earth has been levelled, does he not put in the different sorts of seed, and the grain in lines, and the barley in its place, and the spelt at the edge?

26 For his God is his teacher, giving him the knowledge of these things.

27 For the fitches are not crushed with a sharp instrument, and a cart-wheel is not rolled over the cummin; but the grain of the fitches is hammered out with a stick, and of the cummin with a rod.

28 Is the grain for bread crushed? He does not go on crushing it for ever, but he lets his cart-wheels and his horses go over it without crushing it.

29 This comes from the Lord of armies, purposing wonders, and wise in all his acts.

Good News Translation GNT

1 The kingdom of Israel is doomed! Its glory is fading like the crowns of flowers on the heads of its drunken leaders. Their proud heads are well perfumed, but there they lie, dead drunk.

2 The Lord has someone strong and powerful ready to attack them, someone who will come like a hailstorm, like a torrent of rain, like a rushing, overpowering flood, and will overwhelm the land.

3 The pride of those drunken leaders will be trampled underfoot.

4 The fading glory of those proud leaders will disappear like the first figs of the season, picked and eaten as soon as they are ripe.

5 A day is coming when the Lord Almighty will be like a glorious crown of flowers for his people who survive.

6 He will give a sense of justice to those who serve as judges, and courage to those who defend the city gates from attack.

7 Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them.

8 The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left.

9 They complain about me. They say, "Who does that man think he's teaching? Who needs his message? It's only good for babies that have just stopped nursing!

10 He is trying to teach us letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson."

11 If you won't listen to me, then God will use foreigners speaking some strange-sounding language to teach you a lesson.

12 He offered rest and comfort to all of you, but you refused to listen to him.

13 That is why the Lord is going to teach you letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson. Then you will stumble with every step you take. You will be wounded, trapped, and taken prisoner.

14 Now you arrogant leaders who rule here in Jerusalem over this people, listen to what the Lord is saying.

15 You boast that you have made a treaty with death and reached an agreement with the world of the dead. You are certain that disaster will spare you when it comes, because you depend on lies and deceit to keep you safe.

16 This, now, is what the Sovereign Lord says: "I am placing in Zion a foundation that is firm and strong. In it I am putting a solid cornerstone on which are written the words, "Faith that is firm is also patient.'

17 Justice will be the measuring line for the foundation, and honesty will be its plumb line." Hailstorms will sweep away all the lies you depend on, and floods will destroy your security.

18 The treaty you have made with death will be abolished, and your agreement with the world of the dead will be canceled. When disaster sweeps down, you will be overcome.

19 It will strike you again and again, morning after morning. You will have to bear it day and night. Each new message from God will bring new terror!

20 You will be like the person in the proverb, who tries to sleep in a bed too short to stretch out on, with a blanket too narrow to wrap himself in.

21 The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do - strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work.

22 Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the Lord Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country.

23 Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you.

24 Farmers don't constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting.

25 Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley, and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain.

26 They know how to do their work, because God has taught them.

27 They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size.

28 They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains.

29 All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.