Isaiah
The irresponsible rulers
28
2 Look, the Lord is sending
2 a powerful and strong one.
2 Like a downpour of hail,
2 like a destructive tempest,
2 like flooding water
2 in torrential rain,
2 he will cast it down to the ground –
3 that proud ornament
3 of the drunkards of Ephraim.
3 He will trample it underfoot –
6 He will be a spirit of justice
6 to him who sits in judgment,
6 a source of strength
6 to those who turn back the enemies at the gate.
Scoffers beware
7 But they also have erred through wine, 7 reeling and stumbling from strong drink.
7 Priests and prophets stagger,
7 befuddled with wine,
7 reeling when seeing visions,
7 stumbling when rendering decisions.
8 All the tables are full of vomit;
8 there is not a spot without filth.
9 “Who does he think he is teaching?
9 Who does he think listens to him?
9 Babies just weaned from their mother’s milk?
9 Babies just taken from their mother’s breast?
10 Who cares to hear his
10 ‘Keep quiet, keep quiet!
10 Wait a little, wait a little!’
12 he who once said to them,
12 “This is rest, give rest to the weary”;
12 and, “This is repose.”
12 But they would not listen.
13 That is why Yahweh now says:
13 Keep quiet, keep quiet!
13 Wait a little, wait a little!
13 So that when they have to go forward,
13 they will instead fall backward;
13 they will be injured and snared
13 and taken captive.
14 Therefore, listen to the word of Yahweh, 14 you scoffers who rule these people of Jerusalem.
The cornerstone
17 I will make justice the measure
17 and righteousness the plumb line.
17 Violent hail will sweep away your re fuge of lies and raging waters will over flow your hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death will not stand,
18 your pact with the netherworld will be annulled.
18 When the overwhelming flood passes,
18 you will be crushed by it.
19 Morning after morning,
19 by day and by night,
19 the scourge will seize and crush you.
19 If you understood this message,
19 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 Pera zim,
21 he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon,
21 to work his work – his singular work;
21 to do his deed – his strange deed.
22 Put an end to your mocking,
22 or your bonds will be tightened,
22 for I have heard the destruction de creed
22 against the whole earth
22 by the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth.
Parable of the farmer
23 Listen to my words, pay attention and un der stand what I say. 24 Does the plowman do nothing but plow, loosen the earth, pulverize the clods with a harrow?
25 After leveling the soil, does he not begin to sow caraway and scatter cumin, wheat and barley and put spelt as the border? 
26 For his God instructs him on what to do, he gives him guidance and discretion, too.
26 For his God instructs him on what to do, he gives him guidance and discretion, too. 27 For caraway is not threshed nor cumin crushed, but caraway is beaten with a stick and cumin with a rod.
28 Is the wheat milled on the threshing floor? Is it threshed without end? They put in movement chariot and horses but do not grind it.