1Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim! Its glorious beauty is a fading flower. It sits on the head of the rich valley of those who are overcome with wine.
2Look, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong. Like a storm of hail and a destroying tempest, like a flood of great waters pouring over, he will throw it down to the ground with his hand.
3The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled under foot.
4And the glorious beauty on the head of the rich valley will be a fading flower. It will be like the first ripe fruit before the summer: when a man sees it, he swallows it while it is still in his hand.
5In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory and a beautiful wreath to the rest of his people.
6He will be a spirit of judgment to the one who sits in judgment, and strength to those who drive the battle back to the gate.
7But these also have gone wrong through wine, and strong drink has led them astray. The priest and the prophet have gone wrong through strong drink. Wine has swallowed them up; strong drink has led them astray. They go wrong when they see visions; they stumble when they give judgment.
8For every table is full of vomit and filth, so that there is no clean place left.
9Whom will he teach knowledge? Whom will he make to understand his teaching? Those just taken from the milk, just taken from the breast?
10For it is rule upon rule, rule upon rule; line upon line, line upon line; a little here, and a little there.
11For with stammering lips and a foreign tongue he will speak to this people.
12He said to them, "This is the rest; give rest to the weary. This is the refreshing." Yet they would not listen.
13So the word of the LORD came to them as rule upon rule, rule upon rule; line upon line, line upon line; a little here, and a little there. So they will go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14So hear the word of the LORD, you men who mock, who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15You have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with the grave we have an agreement. When the flooding whip passes through, it will not reach us. For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves."
16Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Look, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Whoever believes will not be in haste."
17"I will make judgment the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will flood the hiding place."
18"Your covenant with death will be cancelled, and your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the flooding whip passes through, you will be trampled down by it."
19"As often as it goes out, it will take you. Morning by morning it will pass over, by day and by night. It will be sheer terror just to understand the message."
20For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.
21For the LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim. He will be angry as he was in the valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his strange work, and to carry out his act, his strange act.
22So now do not mock, or your chains will be made stronger. For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts of a destruction decided on for the whole earth.
23Listen, and hear my voice. Pay attention, and hear what I say.
24Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he keep opening and breaking up the clods of his ground?
25When he has levelled its surface, does he not scatter the dill and sow the cummin? Does he not put in the wheat in rows, the barley in its place, and the rye at the edge?
26For his God instructs him rightly and teaches him.
27For dill is not threshed with a threshing tool, and a cart wheel is not rolled over the cummin. Dill is beaten out with a stick, and cummin with a rod.
28Grain for bread is crushed, but he does not thresh it forever. He drives the wheel of his cart over it, but he does not crush it with his horses.
29This also comes from the LORD of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in what he does.