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August 27, 2023 |
| Isaiah 28 | ||
Before we can start interpreting Isaiah 28, we need to understand who is referred to as "Ephraim." The problem is that this name appears as a reference to different groups. It can refer to Northern Israel, which was degenerate, or even all Israel, in its degenerate form, or it can refer to Christianity, which became degenerate after a good start.
There are two New Testament quotes from this chapter where the author interprets the quote as a reference to the messianic age as a future event for Isaiah. The way Isaiah 28 uses those verses clearly indicates that Ephraim is the Jewish people of Jesus' time.
We'll touch on that again as we reach those verses.
Prophecies are commonly written in a poetic form and this one is as well, except for the first part of verse 16. When a prophecy is entirely in poetic form, I remove the poetic structure in the study. That allows for better use of the limited vertical space on a computer screen. Because of that one part of a verse, though, I'm going to retain the poetic structure.
Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, (Isaiah 28:1)
This is going to be the theme for this chapter, and we'll see the manifestations of confusion, barfing, slurred speech, and stumbling around.
But of course God is talking about spiritual drunkeness and the spiritual manifestations of that. In that way of thinking confusion becomes confusion about spiritual matters, barfing becomes putting out (writing) nonsense, slurred speech becomes speeking nonsense, and stumbling around becomes not following God's directions.
And [woe] to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the fertile valley
Of those who are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has a strong and courageous agent;3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trodden under foot.
As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction,
Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters,
He has set it down to the earth with His hand.
Verse 10 has two levels of meaning. The words have a literal meaning of course, but there is also a meaning in the sound of the words in Hebrew. The sound is "Sav lasav, sav lasav, Kav lakav, kav lakav, Ze'er sham, ze'er sham" (LSB)
The LSB translation says, "These Hebrew monosyllables, imitating the babbling of a child, mock the prophet's preaching." They think this because verse 9 has just referred to Israel as just weaned children, and because verse 14 uses the word scoffers. Because they think that, when the phrase is repeated in verse 13, they think that shows "Yahweh responds to their scoffing by imitating their mockery, to represent the unintelligible language of a conqueror."
It's an interesting idea, but it has problems. How would Israel mock Isaiah in a prophecy from God? Why would they mock him by using baby talk. If we want to mock someone in that style, we would say, "Blah, blah, blah," which means we are tired of hearing you go on and on with your warnings that never happen. God talks about this very problem in Isaiah 43:22, "But you have not called on Me, O Jacob, because you have grown weary of Me, O Israel."
Also the sounds here include non-vocal sounds, like 's' and 's', which are difficult and babies do not use. Also unknown languages never sound like baby talk, conqueror or not. Each language has its own sound qualities and cadence, and you would mock each one differently. I came to understand this when I worked with two Japanese people in a business environment for 2 weeks. One of them had minimal command of English, the other did not speak or understand English at all. So I heard them speaking to each other in Japanese a lot. At the end of that time, when I came home from work, I found that I could do a good representation of the sound of Japanese speech, at least to my ears and those of my wife. Of course it was only the sounds, without any meaning.
I think the translators have missed the point of this chapter, which is spiritual drunkeness and barfing out nonsense. That means those sounds are God's imitation of a drunk person trying to speak. The repetition in verse 13 is God's imitation of speaking in tongues, which the next verse talks about.
Therefore God chose a phrase that would sound like a drunken person speaking and also a person speaking in tongues. What do we see when the apostles begin to speak in tongues? "These are not drunk as you are thinking, for behold, it is now the third hour. (9 A.M.)" (Acts 2:15).
But there is also a literal meaning in these words. They express the idea that
For it is:
Do this, do that, orders to obey
a rule for this, a rule for that[a]; line - rule
a little here, a little there.” (NIV) making small
11 Indeed, He will speak to this people
Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,
Additionally, Isaiah 28:11 is quoted in 1 Corinthians 14:21.
12 He who said to them, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary,"The New Testament quotes Isaiah 28:16 in 1 Peter 2:6 and Romans 9:33 (also referenced in Romans 10:11).
17 I will make justice the measuring line