1Woe, crown of the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards,
and a withered blossom his glory’s splendor
on the head of the fat-proud, stunned by wine.
2Look, one powerful and strong for the Master,
like a current of hail, a storm of destruction,
like a current of mighty rushing waters,
He brings down to the earth.
3Underfoot shall be trampled
the crown of the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards.
4And his glory’s splendor shall become a withered blossom
on the head of the fat-proud,
like a new fig before the harvest—
who sees it will swallow it still in his hand.
5On that day the LORD of Armies shall become
a crown of splendor and a tiara of glory to His people’s remnant,
6and a spirit of justice for him who is seated in judgment
and valor for those who drive back battle from the gate.
7And these, too, blundered through wine
and through strong drink went astray.
Priest and prophet blundered through strong drink,
were confounded through wine,
went astray through strong drink,
8For all the tables were covered with vomit,
9To whom will they teach knowledge
and to whom will they convey lessons?—
to the milk-weaned,
to babes pulled from the breast?
10For it is filth-pilth, filth-pilth,
vomit-momit, vomit-momit,
a little here, a little there.
11For in a barbarous tongue
and in alien language
He shall speak to this people
12to whom He said, “This is rest—leave it for the weary,
and this is repose,” and they did not want to listen.
13And the word of the LORD became for them—
filth-pilth, filth-pilth,
vomit-momit, vomit-momit,
a little here, a little here.
So that they should walk and stumble backward,
and be broken, snared, and trapped.
14Therefore, hear the word of the LORD,
men of mockery,
rulers of this people
who are in Jerusalem.
15For you said, “We have sealed a covenant with Death,
and with Sheol we have made a pact.
No sweeping scourge that passes by
will reach us,
for we have made falsehood our refuge
and in lies we have taken shelter.”
16Therefore thus said the Master the LORD:
I am about to lay a foundation stone in Zion,
the stone for a tower,
a precious corner, a solid foundation.
He who trusts shall have nothing to fear.
17And I will make justice the measuring cord
and righteousness the plumb line.
And hail shall sweep away the refuge of falsehood,
and the shelter, water shall wash off.
18And your covenant with Death shall be canceled,
your pact with Sheol shall not come about.
The sweeping scourge that passes by—
you shall be crushed by it.
19As it passes it shall take you
by day and by night,
shall be naught but horror.
20For the couch is too short to stretch out on,
and the blanket too narrow to cover one up.
21For like Mount Perazim the LORD shall arise,
like Gibeon Valley He shall rage
to do His deed, strange is His deed,
and to accomplish His work, alien His work.
22And now, do not mock,
lest your reins pull tight,
for direly decreed I have heard it
from the Master, the LORD
over all the earth.
23Give ear and hear My voice,
attend and hear My utterance.
24Does the plowman plow all day to sow,
break open and harrow his soil?
25When he levels its surface,
will he not scatter fennel and broadcast cumin
and barley in plots
and spelt as a border?
26For He guides him rightly,
his God instructs him.
27For fennel is not beaten with a threshing sledge
nor does the cartwheel roll over cumin.
For fennel is beaten with a stick
and cumin with a stick.
28Grain for bread is pounded,
but the thresher does not thresh it forever.
He runs over it with his cartwheel
but his horses do not crush it.
29This too from the LORD of Armies issues forth,
He is wondrous in counsel, His wisdom is great.
CHAPTER 28 NOTES
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1. Woe, crown of the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards. Ephraim, the northern kingdom that was wiped out by Assyria in 721 B.C.E., is a somewhat puzzling presence at the beginning of this prophecy, which probably refers to the predicament of the southern kingdom, besieged by Assyria, twenty years later. Perhaps the complete desolation of Ephraim, whose leaders are seen as dissolute, is meant as a portent for Judah.
the fat-proud. The Hebrew spelling of geyʾ would lead one to understand it as “valley”—that is, “valley of the fat growth” or “valley of oils.” It seems preferable to read it as geiʾ, “proud,” in apposition with “stunned by wine” and referring to the drunkards.
2. one powerful and strong for the Master. The reference is probably Assyria, conceived as God’s instrument for punishing Judah.
3–4. the crown of the pride . . . / his glory’s splendor. There are evidently two idioms in this image—a crown which is trampled, and something like a floral wreath, which withers.
5. a crown of splendor and a tiara of glory. In these tightly woven lines, the undeserved or false crown adorning the drunkards is replaced by the true crown that God becomes for His people.
6. a spirit of justice. The drunkards, as the continuation of the prophecy makes vividly clear, pervert justice and distort values, and they are to be replaced by a just ruler.
those who drive back battle from the gate. The city gate would be assaulted by besiegers, who are here repelled by valiant defenders.
7. And these, too, blundered through wine. The Judahites resemble their counterparts in Ephraim.
strong drink. As elsewhere, sheikhar, which like wine is a product of the vine, probably indicates grappa.
the seer. The Hebrew term clearly means this, not “vision,” as many translations here have it, and it jibes with the reference to prophet and priest gone astray.
juddered in judgment. The translation emulates the alliteration of the Hebrew, paqu peliliyah. The Hebrew verb does mean to shake, falter, be unsteady.
8. For all the tables were covered with vomit. The initial notion of drunkenness is now vividly joined by an evocation of the disgusting scene of wine-swilling debauchery.
filth. The Hebrew term indicates excremental filth, so the physical effect of the debauches comes out of the body at both ends.
9. To whom will they teach knowledge. The most likely referent of “they” is the drunken priests, prophets, and seers, whose incoherent teaching would scarcely be suitable for newly weaned babes.
10. For it is filth-pilth, filth-pilth, / vomit-momit, vomit-momit. Wildly divergent interpretations have been proposed for these words. The literal sense would seem to be: “precept precept, line line.” But if precepts are at issue here, they are precepts that have been turned into gibberish by these drunkards. The phonetic kinship between tsaw, precept or command, and tsoʾah, filth or excrement, and between qaw, line, and qiʾ, vomit, is surely not accidental. The translation seeks to convey both this correspondence and the effect of gibberish.
11. For in a barbarous tongue / and in alien language / He shall speak to this people. This is measure-for-measure justice: they have reduced any instruction they might offer to drunken babbling, and God will address them through the incomprehensible language of the Akkadian-speaking Assyrian conquerors.
13. And the word of the LORD became for them— / filth-pilth, filth-pilth. God’s very word, which as leaders of the people they had the responsibility to convey to the people, has turned into grotesque nonsense syllables.
15. We have sealed a covenant with Death. The language here verges on the mythological (Mot, the word used here, is the Canaanite god of death). Some interpreters understand this as a reference to the party in Jerusalem that promoted an alliance with Egypt, known for its cult of the dead, against Assyria. That is possible, but the more evident point is that these perverse leaders have replaced God with the god of death, imagining that they will be safe from all dangers through these covenants with the deity of the netherworld.
16. I am about to lay a foundation stone in Zion. This may look like a switch in direction, but it is not necessary to declare this a later editorial intrusion. In place of a city ruled by drunken idiots, God will establish a just, firm-founded city, while those who made a covenant with death will be swept away (verses 17–21).
19. the conveying of lessons. This phrase refers back to verse 9 and to the reduction of teaching to babble in the lines that followed it. Now, instead of gibberish, there will be terror.
20. For the couch is too short to stretch out on. This homey image represents the acute discomfiting helplessness of the miscreants when they are overtaken by divine judgment: they can neither lie without being cramped in the bed nor cover themselves.
21. like Mount Perazim / . . . like Gibeon Valley. These were places of victory, respectively, for David and for Joshua where God intervened on their behalf. Now He will intervene instead to effect a dire defeat of His people.
23. Give ear and hear My voice. This formal opening injunction clearly signals the beginning of a new prophecy.
24. Does the plowman plow all day to sow. These words initiate an extended simile—or perhaps it is meant to be a parable—that would have spoken directly to the ancient audience because of its agricultural imagery. Unfortunately, not all of the terms and agricultural procedures are transparent to modern readers. What compounds the difficulty is that the referent of the parable—the nimshal of the mashal—is barely hinted at.
25. fennel. This is one conjectural understanding of the Hebrew qetsaḥ.
in rows. This translation reads shurah for the opaque sorah of the Masoretic Text.
26. For He guides him rightly. This would be the evident referent of the parable: God imbues the farmer with understanding so that he can raise his crops in proper fashion. Perhaps there is a more general implication that God implants in humankind the requisite wisdom to conduct all of its affairs. But it must be said that the Hebrew verb used here generally means “to discipline,” not “to instruct.”
28. Grain for bread. “Grain for” is merely implied in the Hebrew.
He runs over it. The verb here generally means “to panic,” and so the translation, somewhat conjecturally, is dictated by the context.
29. He is wondrous in counsel, His wisdom is great. This concluding line is evidently meant to point the moral that all practical wisdom, like the know-how of the farmer who is careful to thresh his grain without polluting it, comes from God. It remains something of a puzzle why the editors chose to introduce a text of this sort in a series of prophecies about the political fate of the people of Israel.