Isaiah 28:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 28:1
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!
splendor (as conspicuous) · noun, common masculine singular construct
beauty
תִפְאַרְתּ֑וֹtif.'ar.To
H8597
ornament (abstractly or concretely · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
fading
נֹבֵ֖לno.Vel
H5034
to wilt · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
flower
וְצִ֥יץve.Tzitz
H6731
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
head
רֹ֥אשׁrosh
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · noun, common masculine singular construct
fat
שְׁמָנִ֖יםshe.ma.Nim
H8081
grease · adjective, masculine plural absolute
valleys
גֵּֽיאgei'-
H1516
a gorge (from its lofty sides · noun, common both genders singular construct
overcome
הֲל֥וּמֵיha.Lu.mei
H1986
to strike down · verb, qal passive participle, masculine plural construct
wine
יָֽיִןYa.yin
H3196
wine (as fermented) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hosea 7:5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
Isaiah 28:7 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 dri…
2 Kings 14:25-27 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, whic…
Isaiah 28:3-4 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
2 Kings 15:29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and…
2 Kings 18:10-12 And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was…
2 Chronicles 28:6 For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken…
2 Chronicles 30:6-7 So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the ki…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 28:1-8
Here, I. The prophet warns the kingdom of the ten tribes of the judgments that were coming upon them for their sins, which were soon after executed by the king of Assyria, who laid their country waste, and carried the people into captivity. Ephraim had his name from fruitfulness, their soil being very fertile and the products of it abundant and the best of the kind; they had a great many fat valleys (Isa 28:1, Isa 28:4), and Samaria, which was situated on a hill, was, as it were, on the head of the fat valleys. Their country was rich and pleasant, and as the garden of the Lord: it was the glory of Canaan, as that was the glory of all lands; their harvest and vintage were the glorious beauty…
Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,.... Or, "of the drunkards of Ephraim": or, "O crown of pride, O drunkards of Ephraim (l)"; who are both called upon, and a woe denounced against them. Ephraim is put for the ten tribes, who were drunk either in a literal sense, for to the sin of drunkenness were they addicted, Hosea 7:5, Amos 6:6. The Jews say (m), that wine of Prugiatha (which perhaps was a place noted for good wine), and the waters of Diomasit (baths), cut off the ten tribes from Israel; which both Jarchi and Kimchi, on the place, make mention of; that is, as Buxtorf (n) interprets it, pleasures and delights destroyed the ten tribes. The inhabitants of Samaria, and th…
Woe to the crown of pride. Isaiah now enters on another and different subject from that which goes before it; for this discourse must be separated from the former one. He shews that the anger of the Lord will quickly overtake, first, Israel, and afterwards the Jews; for it is probable that the kingdom of Israel was still entire when the Prophet uttered these predictions, though nothing more can be affirmed with certainty than that there is good reason to believe that the ten tribes had not at that time been led into captivity.
Accordingly, the Prophet follows this order. First, he shews that the vengeance of God is not far from Israel, because various sins and corruption of every kind preva…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 28, Verse 1) Woe to the pride of Ephraim's crown, to the fading flower of its glorious splendor, which is at the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine. See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour, he will throw it forcefully to the ground. The proud crown of Ephraim's drunkards will be trampled underfoot. The fading flower of its glorious splendor, which is at the head of the fertile valley, will be like a fig before the fruit harvest, as soon as someone sees it and takes it in hand, they swallow it. LXX: Alas for the crown of the pride of Ephraim's hired mercenaries, the flower that falls from the glory atop the fat mountain, those who are drunk but not with wine. Behold, the strong and fierce anger of the Lord, like hail that falls forcefully, without shelter, which violently falls like a multitude of waters drawing the ground, and making space for itself: the crown of the pride of Ephraim's hired mercenaries will be trampled by hands and feet. And there will be a flower that falls from the hope of glory on the summit of the high mountain, like an early fig, which anyone who sees it before it is ripe will desire to devour it. Let us first speak according to history, then according to allegory, and finally according to prophetical vision. The divine discourse speaks against the ten tribes that were reigning in Samaria, and because of Jeroboam, who was from the tribe of Ephraim, they were called Ephraim. And he calls them the crown of pride: because compared to the two tribes, which were called Judah, they were higher in number and strength. And he says that Ephraim has made them drunk, who do not understand their Creator, but worship golden calves as their Lord in Dan and Bethel. These were once in their prime, lords and in glory, when they were ruled by David and Solomon, and they were worshiping God in the temple of Jerusalem in the twelve tribes, which were in the summit of the fattest valley, which in Hebrew is called Ge Semanim (). It signifies the place where the Lord was delivered; on top of which valley the temple of the Lord was situated. These were intoxicated by the wine of error and madness, which Jeroboam mixed for them. Therefore, the Lord threatens punishment against them, because just as a hailstorm shatters…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Banquets — among the Hebrews, were not only a means of social enjoyment, but were a part of the observance of religious festivity. At the three solemn festivals the family also had its domestic feast. (16:11)…
Flowers — Very few species of flowers are mentioned in the Bible although they abounded in Palestine. It has been calculated that in Western Syria and Palestine from two thousand to two thousand five hundred…
Meals — Are at the present day “eaten from a round table little higher than a stool, guests sitting cross-legged on mats or small carpets in a circle, and dipping their fingers into one large dish heaped…
Sychar — Liar or drunkard (see Isa. 28:1, 7), has been from the time of the Crusaders usually identified with Sychem or Shechem (John 4:5). It has now, however, as the result of recent explorations, been…
Drunkard · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Drunkenness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Flowers · Illustrative of: Kingdom of Israel — Illustrative of: Kingdom of Israel
Israel, Prophecies Concerning · .Of — .Of
Pride · Woe to — Woe to
Samaria, Ancient · The territory of Ephraim and Manasseh properly so called — The territory of Ephraim and Manasseh properly so called
Valleys · Called: Fat valleys, when fruitful — Called: Fat valleys, when fruitful
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Isaiah, like Micah, commences with the fall of the proud and intoxicated Samaria. "Woe to the proud crown of the drunken of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of its splendid ornament, which is upon the head of the luxuriant valley of those slain with wine." The allusion is to Samaria, which is called (1.) "the pride-crown of the drunken of Ephraim," i.e., the crown of which the intoxicated and blinded Ephraimites were proud (Isa 29:9; Isa 19:14), and (2.) "the fading flower" (on the expression itself, compare Isa 1:30; Isa 40:7-8) "of the ornament of his splendour," i.e., the flower now fading, which had once been the ornament with which they made a show. This flower stood "upon the head of…
This section is connected by a series of six threats of judgment or woes (cp. 5:8-23). Apart from the initial address to Samaria in 28:1-13, the remainder of the section is addressed to Judah, especially because of their inclination to trust Egypt to rescue them from Assyria (30:2).
28:1-29 The glory of Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, is here contrasted with the glory of the Lord. This section represents the first of the six woes (What sorrow . . .).
28:1 The drunks of Israel epitomized pride, spiritual complacency, and scorn for God and his commands. • Unlike Jerusalem, Samaria was in a fertile valley.
Rashi on Isaiah 28:1
the drunkards of Ephraim who would become intoxicated with the wine of the state of Prugitha, as (the Rabbis) stated (Shabbath 147b): The water of Damascus and the wine of Prugitha robbed away the ten tribes.
and the young fruit of an inferior fig is the position of his glory And the position of the planting of his glory - the young fruit of his blossom shall be inferior figs (נֹבֵל) They are the spoiled figs, as we learned in Berachoth (40b): For noveloth. And our Sages explained: Burned by the heat. young fruit (צִיץ) synonymous with נֵץ, as the Targum renders: (Num. 27:13) וַיָּצֵץ צִיץ, “and it produced young fruit,” as וְאָנֵץ נֵץ.
which is planted at the head of a valley of fatness T…
