Judgment on Ephraim and Judah

¹Oh, the majestic garland of Ephraim’s drunks

and the fading flower of its splendid beauty

on the head that flows with perfume

of those hammered with wine.

²Look! The Lord has someone who is powerful and strong;

like a hailstorm, a disastrous tempest,

like a downpour of mighty, overflowing waters,

he can level them to the ground with his hand.

³The majestic garland of Ephraim’s drunks

will be trampled underfoot.

⁴The withered flower, which is a thing of beauty[#28.4 Heb uncertain]

whoever sees it swallows it as soon as it is in hand.

⁵On that day, the LORD of heavenly forces will be a splendid garland and a beautiful wreath for the people who survive,

⁶and a spirit of justice for the one who sits in judgment, and a strength for those who repel the assault at the gate.

⁷These also stagger from wine and stumble from beer:

priest and prophet stagger from beer;

they are confused by wine;

they stray on account of beer;

they err when receiving visions;

they stumble when making judgments.

⁸All the tables are covered with vomit;

filth overruns the place.

⁹To whom will God teach knowledge?

To whom will he explain the message?

To those just weaned from milk?

To those who have hardly outgrown the breast?

¹⁰It is “tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav,”[#28.10 A Hebrew version of baby talk or gibberish]

a little of this, a little of that.

¹¹With derisive speech and a foreign tongue,

he will speak to this people.

¹²He has said to them,

“This is the place of rest;

give rest to the weary;

this is the place of repose”;

¹³So the LORD ’s word will be for them:

“tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav,”

a little of this, a little of that.

So that they will go and stagger backward,

they will be broken, snared, and captured.

The covenant with death overturned

¹⁴Therefore, hear the LORD ’s word,

you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

¹⁵You said, “We’ve cut a deal with death;[#28.15 Heb Maveth]

with the underworld we made a pact.

When the overflowing flood passes through, it won’t reach us;

for we have made lies our hiding place,

and in falsehood we take shelter.”

¹⁶Therefore, the LORD God says:

Look! I’m laying in Zion a stone,

a tested stone, a valuable cornerstone,

a sure foundation:

the one who trusts won’t tremble.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line

and righteousness the plumb line.

But hail will sweep away the hiding place of lies,

and water will overflow the shelter.

¹⁸Your deal with death will be dissolved,[#28.18 Heb Maveth]

and your pact with the grave won’t stand.

The rushing flood: when it passes through,

you will be annihilated by it.

¹⁹Every time it passes through it will take you,

for morning by morning it will pass,

by day and by night.

It will be nothing but terror to understand the message.

²⁰The bed is too short to stretch out,

and the shroud is too narrow to cover oneself.

²¹Just as on Mount Perazim, the LORD will rise up;

as in the Gibeon Valley he will rage to do his deed—strange is his deed!—

And to work his work—foreign is his work!

²²So now stop your scoffing,

because destruction has been ordered—I have heard it!—

Plowing and threshing

²³Listen and hear my voice;

pay attention and hear my word:

²⁴Does the plowman plow without stopping for planting,

opening and harrowing their ground?

²⁵When he has smoothed its surface,

doesn’t he scatter fennel, and sow cumin,

and plant wheat and barley in their places,

and spelt as a border?

²⁶They are properly ordered;

their God directs them.

²⁷Fennel isn’t threshed with a threshing sledge,[#28.27 Or black cumin]

nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,

but fennel is beaten with a staff,

and cumin with a rod.

²⁸Bread grain is crushed,

but the thresher doesn’t thresh it forever.

He drives the cart wheel over it;

²⁹This also comes from the LORD of heavenly forces,

who gives wondrous counsel and increases wisdom.