¹Woe to the crown of pride,

To the drunkards of Ephraim,

Whose magnificent splendour

Is a fading flower

Which is in the best fertile valley

– You who are impaired by wine.

²Behold, the Lord^* has what is strong and powerful,

Such as a deluge of hail

– A destructive storm –

Such as a deluge of torrential water,

Causing flooding,

Which he sends down to earth with his hand.

³The crown of pride,

The drunkards of Ephraim,

Will be trodden under foot.

⁴And the magnificent splendour,

Which is in the best fertile valley,

Will be a fading flower,

Like its early fruit before the summer,

Which, when the observer sees it,

He swallows down

While it is still in his hand.

⁵On that day the Lord of hosts

Will be a crown of splendour

And a diadem of magnificence

To the remainder of his people,

⁶And a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,

And a spirit of valour to them

Who repulse the assault on the gate.

⁷So these too have erred because of wine

And have gone astray because of liquor.

Priest and prophet have erred because of liquor;

They have been swallowed up by the wine.

They have gone astray because of the liquor,

They have erred in the vision;

They have floundered in the administration of justice.

⁸For all the tables are full of vomit and excrement

Without a clean space.

⁹To whom will he impart knowledge?

And to whom will he disclose information?

– To those who have been weaned from milk,

And who have grown out of breastfeeding.

¹⁰For it is commandment upon commandment,

Commandment upon commandment,

Rule upon rule,

Rule upon rule;

A little here, a little there.

¹²– To this people to whom he said,

“This is the rest;

Give the weary rest”,

And, “This is the tranquillity.”

But they were unwilling to hear.

¹³And the word of the Lord to them was

Commandment upon commandment,

Commandment upon commandment,

Rule upon rule,

Rule upon rule,

A little here, a little there,

So that they might proceed.

But they staggered backwards

And were crippled

And ensnared and caught.

¹⁴So then, hear the word of the Lord,

You scornful men,

You rulers of this people

Who are in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you have said,

“We have made a covenant with death,

And we have made a contract with the grave,

That when the overwhelming scourge passes through,

It will not come on us,

For we have made the lie our refuge,

And we have hidden in falsehood.”

¹⁶This is why my Lord the Lord says,

¹⁷And I will establish justice according to a straight line,

And righteousness according to a plummet.

And hail will sweep away the covering of the lie,

And water will flush secrecy out.

¹⁸And your covenant with death will be abolished,

And your contract with the grave will not stand.

When the overwhelming scourge passes through,

You will be an object for it to tread down.

¹⁹Every time when it passes through

It will take you,

For morning by morning it will pass through,

By day and by night.

And it will be a shocking thing

Just to contemplate hearing about.

²⁰For the bed will be too short

To stretch oneself in,

And the blanket too narrow,

To wrap oneself up in.

²¹For the Lord will arise as at Mount Perazim;

He will be stirred up as in the Valley of Gibeon,

To carry out his business

– His peculiar business –

And to accomplish his work

– His strange work.”

²²So now, don't behave like mockers,

So that your fetters are not tightened,

For I have heard of a conclusion

From the Lord

– The Lord of hosts –

Which has been determined over all the earth.

²³Listen and hear my voice;

Attend and hear what I have to say.

²⁴Does the ploughman plough all day

In order to sow?

Does he open up and harrow his ground?

²⁵Does he not,

When he has levelled its surface,

Scatter black caraway

And strew cumin?

And put wheat in a row,

And is barley not marked off,

And is spelt not sown

In its allocated area?

²⁶And there is one who instructs him in justice:

His God teaches him.

²⁷For black caraway is not threshed with a threshing board,

Nor is a wagon wheel turned on cumin,

For black caraway is beaten with a stick,

And cumin with a rod.

²⁸Is flour ground fine?

For he will not thresh away at it for ever,

Nor will he drive the wheel of his wagon,

Nor will his horsemen grind it fine.

²⁹This too originates

From the Lord of hosts.

He has made a wonderful decision;

He has shown magnificent sound wisdom.

Reference(s) in Chapter 28: v.11 ↔ 1 Corinthians 14:21 ● v.12 ↔ 1 Corinthians 14:21 ● v.16 ↔ Romans 9:33, Romans 10:11, 1 Peter 2:6.