A Cornerstone in Zion

Isaiah 28:14) Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers,

who rule this people in Jerusalem!

15) Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,

and with Sheol we have an agreement,

when the overwhelming whip passes through

it will not come to us,

for we have made lies our refuge,

and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;

16) therefore thus says the Lord GOD,

“Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion,

a stone, a tested stone,

a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:

‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’

17) And I will make justice the line,

and righteousness the plumb line;

and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,

and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”

18) Then your covenant with death will be annulled,

and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;

when the overwhelming scourge passes through,

you will be beaten down by it.

19) As often as it passes through it will take you;

for morning by morning it will pass through,

by day and by night;

and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.

20) For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,

and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.

21) For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim;

as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused;

to do his deed—strange is his deed!

and to work his work—alien is his work!

22) Now therefore do not scoff,

lest your bonds be made strong;

for I have heard a decree of destruction

from the Lord GOD of hosts against the whole land.

23) Give ear, and hear my voice;

give attention, and hear my speech.

24) Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?

Does he continually open and harrow his ground?

25) When he has leveled its surface,

does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,

and put in wheat in rows

and barley in its proper place,

and emmer as the border?

26) For he is rightly instructed;

his God teaches him.

27) Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,

but dill is beaten out with a stick,

and cumin with a rod.

28) Does one crush grain for bread?

No, he does not thresh it forever;

when he drives his cart wheel over it

with his horses, he does not crush it.

29) This also comes from the LORD of hosts;

he is wonderful in counsel

and excellent in wisdom.