Isaiah 28:5-13

In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,

-The prophet now turns to Judah, a gracious promise to the remnant ("residue"); a warning lest through like sins Judah should share the fate of Samaria.

Verse 5. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory - antithesis to the 'fading crown' of Ephraim (Isaiah 28:1; Isaiah 28:3).

And for a diadem of beauty - in contrast to Ephraim's "glorious beauty," or 'ornament of beauty,' which shall be consumed as 'the early fig' (Isaiah 28:1; Isaiah 28:4).

Unto the residue - primarily, Judah, in the prosperous reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:7); antitypically, the elect of God. As He here is called their 'crown and diadem,' so are they called His (Isaiah 62:3); a beautiful reciprocity.

Verse 6. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment. Yahweh will inspire their magistrates with justice, and their soldiers with strength of spirit.

Them that turn the battle to the gate - the defenders of their country who not only repel the foe from Them that turn the battle to the gate - the defenders of their country, who not only repel the foe from themselves, but drive him to the gates of his own cities (2 Samuel 11:23; 2 Kings 18:8).

Verse 7. But they also have erred through wine - Though Judah is to survive the fall of Ephraim, yet "they also" (the men of Judah) have perpetrated like sins to those of Samaria (Isaiah 5:3; Isaiah 5:11), which must be chastised by God.

Erred ... are out of the way. The Hebrew, shaaguw (H7686) ... taa`uw (H8582), allude to the tottering gait of drunkards: they stagger ... reel. Still the metaphorical sense is intended, as in the English version.

The priest and the prophet have erred ... they are out of the way - repeated to express the frequency of the vice.

Priest ... prophet. If the ministers of religion sin so grievously, how much more the other rulers (Isaiah 56:10; Isaiah 56:12).

They err in vision - even in that most sacred function of the prophet, to declare God's will revealed to them.

They stumble in judgment. The priests had the administration of the law committed to them (Deuteronomy 17:9; Deuteronomy 19:17). It was against the law for the priests to take wine before entering the tabernacle (Leviticus 10:9); so in the future temple it shall be (Ezekiel 44:21).

Verse 9,10.-Here the drunkards are introduced as scoffingly commenting on Isaiah's warnings:

Verse 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? - `Whom will he (does Isaiah presume to) teach knowledge?'

And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? - i:e, instruction.

(Them that are) weaned from the milk. Is it those (i:e., does he take us to be) just weaned from the mother's milk?

Verse 10. For precept (must be) upon precept - For (he is constantly repeating, as if to little children) "precept upon precept," etc.

Line (Hebrew, qaw (H6957)) - a measuring line, a line for straightness used by architects and builders (Job 38:5; Isaiah 44:13). So in general, a rule or law. But as the scoffers speak of the rudiments taught to mere children, the allusion probably is to teachers guiding the hands of young beginners along prescribed lines (Grotius), and teaching them first to make the parts or strokes of a letter separately, then to join them line to line, in order to complete the letter. The repetition of sounds in Hebrew, tzav latzav, tzav latzav, qav laqav, qav laquav, expresses the scorn of the imitators of Isaiah's speaking; he spoke stammering (Isaiah 28:11). God's mode of teaching offends by its simplicity the pride of sinners (2 Kings 5:11; 1 Corinthians 1:23). Stammerers, as they were by drunkenness, and children in knowledge of God, they needed to be spoken to in the language of children, and "with stammering lips" (cf. Matthew 13:13). A just and merciful retribution.

Here a little ... there a little. A little now from one book, or one part of a book; next day a little again from another book, or from another part of a book, according to the capacity of the young learner: answering to "the wheat ... the barley ... the rye, in their place" (Isaiah 28:25). Verse 11. Isaiah's reply to the scoffers.

For. Maurer translates [ kiy (H3588)] Truly. But "For" is better. Isaiah admits that what they say is true; because they need to be dealt with in speech stammering and unintelligible to them, because of their pride; and the same mode of teaching shall be carried further. "For with stammering lips and another tongue will He (Yahweh) speak to this people." You will have a sterner teacher with stammering speech than Isaiah to convict you of your unbelief. Your drunken questions shall be answered by the severe lessons from God conveyed through the Assyrians and Babylonians; the dialect of these, though Semitic, like the Hebrew, was so far different as to sound to the Jews like the speech of stammerers (cf. Isaiah 33:19; Isaiah 36:11). To them who will not understand, God will speak still more unintelligibly, and by a sterner messenger. So Paul quotes this passage to prove that foreign tongues, such as some were endowed with power to speak, were designed as a sign to convict unbelievers: this is quite in unison with the sense here, mutatis mutandis (1 Corinthians 14:21).

Verse 12. To whom he said, This (is) the rest (wherewith) ye may cause the weary to rest. This gives the reason why Yahweh was about to send the enemy "with stammering lips," or foreign tongue, to deal with them-namely, because He had spoken to them in vain of the "rest" which He gives to His people: "they would not hear." The Hebrew, 'ªsher (H834) 'aamar (H559) 'ªleeyhem (H413), if taken as the English version, which is favoured by the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldaic, is an instance of the idiom, which repeats the antecedent after the relative, 'To whom He said to them,' etc. Maurer makes "He," in Isaiah 28:11, to be the antecedent. 'He (Yahweh), who hath said to them,' etc. If the English version be not retained, take the relative, 'ªsher (H834), as it sometimes occurs, for because, or since, as the Syriac and Arabic take it: thus Isaiah 28:12 assigns the reason why God will send the foreign foe against them, as He threatens in Isaiah 28:11.

This (is) the rest. Reference may be primarily to "rest" from national warlike preparations, the Jews being at the time "weary," through various preceding wars and calamities, as the Syro-Israelite invasion (Isaiah 7:8: cf. Isaiah 30:15; Isaiah 22:8; Isaiah 39:2; Isaiah 36:1; 2 Kings 18:8). But spiritually the "rest" meant is that to be found in obeying those very "precepts" of God (Isaiah 28:10) which they jeered at (cf. Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 11:29).

Verse 13. But (i:e., Although) the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept - i:e., offered to them in the plainest and most familiar manner, "yet they would not hear" (Isaiah 28:12).

That they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken - that they might go: the righteous retributive result to those who, from a defect of the will, so far from profiting by God's mode of instructing, which was the best for those who needed 'milk, not strong meat,' "precept upon precept," etc., made it into a stumbling-block (Hosea 6:5; Hosea 8:12; Matthew 13:14, "By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive").

Go, and fall - image appropriately from "drunkards" (Isaiah 28:7, which they were), who, in trying to "go" forward, "fall backward."