Isaiah 28:7-8

Back To the Present. The Condition of Judah (Isaiah 28:7).

Many view this movement back to the present as commencing a reference to Judah (see Isaiah 28:14), as against Israel in Isaiah 28:1, which would explain the reason for the intervention, which was to turn attention to the coming David and the strong city. Isaiah now points out that their leaders are too much involved in overmuch drinking to come to sensible decisions. Their riposte will be to accuse him of speaking to them as though they were children, to which he will reply that as they will not rest in Yahweh they will fall into His snare.

Analysis.

a But these also have erred through wine, and have gone astray through strong drink (Isaiah 28:7 a).

b The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they have gone astray through strong drink (Isaiah 28:7 b).

b They err in vision, they stumble in judgment (Isaiah 28:7 c).

a For all tables are filled with vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean (Isaiah 28:8).

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Note how the second item covers the same ground as the first in reverse, but with an added feature, although applying it to priest and prophet. The spirit of judgment is lacking, replaced by strong drink. The writer's pattern is complicated. Note how in ‘a' they have been surfeited in wine and strong drink, and in the parallel it has made them filthy their surroundings with their vomit. In ‘b' priest and prophet have erred and gone astray and in the parallel they have erred in vision (prophets) and stumbled (failure of the teaching of the priests).

Isaiah 28:7

‘But these also have erred through wine,

And have gone astray through strong drink.

The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,

They are swallowed up by wine,

They have gone astray through strong drink.

They err in vision.

They stumble in judgment.

For all tables are filled with vomit and filthiness,

So that there is no place clean.'

‘These also' refers back to the one who sits in judgment and those who guard the gates, the people of Judah. Those who are presently in this position are not guided by the spirit of judgment, they are guided by false ‘spirit', by wine and strong drink. Whether the people turn to priest or prophet they will discover the same. Their judgments (the responsibility of priests - Malachi 2:5) and their vision (the responsibility of prophets) err because they are under the influence of drink, soaked in it, swallowed up by it, and going astray. They stumble in their judgments, and spew out the contents of their stomachs. So bad is the situation that, when they are at table, the table is covered with their vomit and their filth. Thus all is unclean.

There could not be a worse picture of debility. Here they are gathered to make decisions on behalf of God's people, but they appear hopelessly drunk. Thus they stumble in judgment, they stumble in vision, and they behave disgustingly. They vomit all over the table. All is filthy with no place clean. It is like a pigsty. The picture is of those unfit to govern. It is only later that we discover wherein they err. They look to Egypt for help against Assyria rather than to Yahweh. But at this point Isaiah is more concerned to point out that they are cut off from Yahweh in all their deliberations by their condition. God is disgusted with them.