Isaiah 28:18-28

18 Your agreement with death will be erased; your contract with death will not help you. When terrible punishment comes, you will be crushed by it.

19 Whenever punishment comes, it will take you away. It will come morning after morning; it will defeat you by day and by night. Those who understand this punishment will be terrified."

20 You will be like the person who tried to sleep on a bed that was too short and with a blanket that was too narrow to wrap around himself.

21 The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim. He will be angry as he was in the Valley of Gibeon. He will do his work, his strange work. He will finish his job, his strange job.

22 Now, you must not make fun of these things, or the ropes around you will become tighter. how the whole earth will be destroyed.

23 Listen closely to what I tell you; listen carefully to what I say.

24 A farmer does not plow his field all the time; he does not go on working the soil.

25 He makes the ground flat and smooth. Then he plants the dill and scatters the cumin. He plants the wheat in rows, the barley in its special place, and other wheat as a border around the field.

26 His God teaches him and shows him the right way.

27 A farmer doesn't use heavy boards to crush dill; he doesn't use a wagon wheel to crush cumin. He uses a small stick to break open the dill, and with a stick he opens the cumin.

28 The grain is ground to make bread. People do not ruin it by crushing it forever. The farmer separates the wheat from the chaff with his cart, but he does not let his horses grind it.

Isaiah 28:18-28 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 28

In this chapter the ten tribes of Israel and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, are threatened with divine judgments, because of their sins and iniquities mentioned. The ten tribes, under the name of Ephraim, for their pride and drunkenness, Isa 28:1 the means of their destruction, the Assyrian monarch, compared to a hail storm, and a flood of mighty waters, Isa 28:2 which destruction, for their sins, is repeated, and represented as sudden and swift; when they would be like a fading flower and hasty fruit, Isa 28:3,4 and then, as for the two tribes, though they had a glorious prince at the head of them, who had a spirit of wisdom and judgment for government, and of valour and courage for war, Isa 28:5,6 yet the generality of the people, led on by the example of priest and prophet, went into the same sensual gratifications as they of the ten tribes did, Isa 28:7,8 and became sottish and unteachable, and were like children just taken from the breast, and to be used as such, Isa 28:9-11 and though the doctrine proposed to be taught them was such as, if received, would be of the greatest advantage to them, for their comfort and refreshment, yet it was refused by them with the utmost contempt; which was to be their ruin, Isa 28:12,13, wherefore the rulers of Jerusalem are threatened with the judgments of God, which should come upon them night and day, the report of which would be a vexation to them; and from which they should not be screened by their covenant with death and hell, or by their shelters and coverings with lies and falsehood, in which they placed their confidence, Isa 28:14,15 Isa 28:17-22 in the midst of which account, for the comfort of the Lord's people, stands a glorious prophecy, concerning the sure foundation laid in Zion, on which all that are built are safe and happy, Isa 28:16 and the certainty of these judgments is illustrated by the method which the ploughman takes in sowing his corn, and threshing it out; for which he has instruction and direction from the Lord of hosts, Isa 28:23-29.