that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10. For
precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line
upon 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 wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and
this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. 13. But the word of the
Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon
line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might
go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.'--ISAIAH
xxviii. 1-13.


This prophecy probably falls in the first years of Hezekiah, when
Samaria still stood, and the storm of war was gathering black in the
north. The portion included in the text predicts the fall of Samaria
(verses 1-6) and then turns to Judah, which is guilty of the same sins
as the northern capital, and adds to them mockery of the prophet's
message. Isaiah speaks with fiery indignation and sharp sarcasm. His
words are aflame with loathing of the moral corruption of both kingdoms,
and he fastens on the one common vice of drunkenness--not as if it were
the only sin, but because it shows in the grossest form the rottenness
underlying the apparent beauty.

I. The woe on Samaria (verses 1-6). Travellers are unanimous in their
raptures over the fertility and beauty of the valley in which Samaria
stood, perched on its sunny, fruitful hill, amid its vineyards. The
situation of the city naturally suggests the figure which regards it as
a sparkling coronet or flowery wreath, twined round the brows of the
hill; and that poetical metaphor is the more natural, since revellers
were wont to twist garlands in their hair, when they reclined at their