1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are at the head of the fat valleys of those who are overcome with wine!
2. Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong, who as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall throw them down to the earth with his hand.
3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under foot:
4. And the glorious beauty which is at the head of the fat valley shall be a fading flower, and as the early fruit before the summer; which when he that looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5. In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, to the remainder of his people,
6. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to those who turn back the battle to the gate.
7. But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink have left the pathway; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they have left the pathway through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11. For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12. To whom he said, This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13. But the word of the LORD was to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14. Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15. Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come to us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not be in haste.
17. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18. And your covenant with death shall be abolished, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19. From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be nothing but distress to understand the report of it.
20. For the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on: and the covering is narrower than he can wrap himself in.
21. For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22. Now therefore do not be mockers, so that your bonds are not made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a destruction, even determined upon the whole earth.
23. Give ear, and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech.
24. Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the lumps of his ground?
25. When he has leveled the face thereof, does he not toss out the dill, and scatter the cummin, and drop in the choice wheat and the select barley and the rye in their place?
26. For his God instructs him to discretion, and teaches him.
27. For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned around on the cummin; but the dill is beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28. Bread grain is crushed; because he will not always be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor crush it with his horsemen.
29. This also comes from the LORD of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.