The irresponsible rulers
1 ① Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim proudly adorned,
to that fading flower of luxurious beauty
on the head of a rich valley –
all are dizzy with wine.
2Look, the Lord is sending
a powerful and strong one.
Like a downpour of hail,
like a destructive tempest,
like flooding water
in torrential rain,
he will cast it down to the ground –
3that proud ornament
of the drunkards of Ephraim.
He will trample it underfoot -
4that fading flower of glorious beauty on the head of a rich valley.
It will be like an early fruit
which ripened before summer:
as soon as someone sees it
he picks it, and while it is yet
in his hand he eats it.
5On that day, Yahweh Sabaoth
will be a glorious ornament,
a diadem of beauty,
to the remnant of his people. 6He will be a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength
to those who turn back the enemies at the gate.
Scoffers beware
7But they also have erred through wine,
reeling and stumbling from strong drink.
Priests and prophets stagger,
befuddled with wine,
reeling when seeing visions,
stumbling when rendering decisions. 8All the tables are full of vomit; there is not a spot without filth.
9“Who does he think he is teaching? Who does he think listens to him?
Babies just weaned from their mother’s milk?
Babies just taken from their mother’s breast?
10Who cares to hear his ‘Keep quiet, keep quiet! Wait a little, wait a little!’
11Yes, surely with stammering lips and in a strange tongue,
he will talk to this nation,
12he who once said to them, “This is rest, give rest to the weary”; and, “This is repose.”
But they would not listen.
13hat is why Yahweh now says: Keep quiet, keep quiet! Wait a little, wait a little!
So that when they have to go forward, they will instead fall backward; they will be injured and snared and taken captive.
14Therefore, listen to the word of Yahweh,
you scoffers who rule these people of Jerusalem. 15Because you make a boast, “We have made a covenant with death,
we have made a pact with the netherworld.
When the flood passes by
it cannot harm us,
for we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”
The cornerstone
16Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this:
See, I lay in Zion a granite stone,
a precious stone, a sure foundation;
he who relies on it shall not be put to shame.
17I will make justice the measure and righteousness the plumb line.
Violent hail will sweep away your refuge of lies and raging waters will over flow your hiding place.
18Your covenant with death will not stand,
your pact with the netherworld will be annulled.
When the overwhelming flood passes, you will be crushed by it.
19Morning after morning,
by day and by night,
the scourge will seize and crush you. If you understood this message, you would be terrified.
20“The bed will be too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.”
21>Yahweh will arise as on Mount Perazim,
he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon,
to work his work – his singular work; to do his deed – his strange deed. 22Put an end to your mocking, or your bonds will be tightened,
for I have heard the destruction decreed against the whole earth
by the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth.
Parable of the farmer
23Listen to my words, pay attention and understand what I say.
24Does the plowman do nothing but plow, loosen the earth, pulverize the clods with a harrow?
25After leveling the soil, does he not begin to sow caraway and scatter cumin, wheat and barley and put spelt as the border? 26For his God instructs him on what to do, he gives him guidance and discretion, too.
27For caraway is not threshed nor cumin crushed, but caraway is beaten with a stick and cumin with a rod.
28Is the wheat milled on the threshing floor? Is it threshed without end? They put in movement chariot and horses but do not grind it.
29All comes from Yahweh Sabaoth whose advice is excellent, whose wisdom is wonderful.
- Is 28,1 Chapters 28-35. In these chapters we find a mixture of many poems from different sources. 28:1-6. Oracles against Samaria: pronounced immediately before its destruction (721); see commentary on 2:6-19. Is 28,7 In 28:7-22, a very important poem. To understand it, let us not forget that Isaiah addresses people steeped in a religious culture. They do nothing without consulting priests and prophets. It is known that these prophets are members of confraternities of some kind charged with the guidance of those who seek counsel from Yahweh: but all that is more self-interest and not a matter of seeking the will of God. In verse 11 the prophet is the one who knows how to read God's messages and reads for those who do not; but what God has to say is sealed and is not accessible to this kind of prophets. The priests and false prophets make fun of Isaiah, saying his words make no sense other than warnings to little children. Isaiah tells them: since you refuse to understand Yahweh's warnings, he will speak to you in a stronger way through events where you will not know what to do and you will have in your homeland strangers whose language you will not understand (the same message in 29:14). Is 28,14 {N}28,{/}14-15 and {N}28,{/}18-19: the king's counselors enter into political alliances, playing Egypt against Assyria; Isaiah demands that they seek salvation elsewhere than in these games that can only lead to disaster. It is in the midst of these reproaches that we have the word cornerstone. Is 28,16 16-22 See, I lay in Zion a granite stone. The Lord builds the foundation of the new Jerusalem. Regarding the cornerstone we read: He who relies on it shall not be put to shame. God assists at the events where the elite and the politicians bustle about. He begins to create in his own way a new history, and already places in the midst of his people that which or he whom no one will be able to ignore, he on whom a believing person may lean. In Hebrew the same word denotes believe and lean on. The new people of God will be a people of believers and no power will dominate them. Must we understand relies on it to mean a new stage of history where God already counts little on the kings of Jerusalem, or relies on him to mean the savior? Isaiah lets us understand that it is a matter of new history where justice will be the criterion, replacing customs and human prejudice, and of course money, corruption and the authoritarian caprice of kings. Already before Christ, the Jews held that this stone designated the Messiah (see Psalm 118:22). In any case Isaiah refuses to speak of a king consecrated by God (which is what Messiah means), for already it was obvious that Kings only deceive. The salvation promised by God would go far beyond what was expected then from a savior. Jesus will apply this word to himself (see Mt 21:42 and Eph 2:21). Paul also recalls this new foundation in 2 Tim 2:19. The Christ is there in the midst of his people, and he is there in his Church, even when we believe we are building it ourselves. Is 28,23 Several oracles pronounced during the crisis of 701. It is difficult for us to understand this parable of the farmer unless we remember that all ancient peoples considered that God, or the gods, taught them the secrets of agriculture. Isaiah says: see how Yahweh has taught the secrets of the earth, to plant at the right time so that the harvest will follow in due time. Know then that Yahweh's word is the sure means of sowing in history and guiding politics in such a way that there may be fruit to harvest at a given time.
