1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2. Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4. And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks on 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 residue of his people,
6. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7. But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way 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? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10. For precept must be on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on 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 on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14. Why 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 at agreement; when the overflowing whip 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 said the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make 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 disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing whip 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 a vexation only to understand the report.
20. For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21. For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth 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 be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined on the whole earth.
23. Give you 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 clods of his ground?
25. When he has made plain the face thereof, does he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place?
26. For his God does instruct him to discretion, and does teach him.
27. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about on the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29. This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.