Isaiah 28 Bible study: A precious cornerstone

The chapter opens with the first of six woes in chapters 28-33 (28:1, 29:1, 29:15, 30:1, 31:1, 33:1): "Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!" (28:1) (tap crown, drunkards). "Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong" (28:2), like "a storm of mighty waters overflowing" (28:2), and "The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot" (28:3). The fading flower will be "like the first-ripe fig before the summer, which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it" (28:4). Then the crown changes hands: "In that day, the LORD of Armies will become a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the residue of his people" (28:5). In Hebrew 28:5's crown is 28:1's word, and the two words of 28:1's glorious beauty, tsevi and tif'eret, both come back in 28:5 (tap glory). The words for what fades on Ephraim's head are now spoken of the LORD himself, and he will also be "a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate" (28:6). The chapter on Isaiah 4 sets 28:5 beside 4:2. None of this is applied here to any people or leaders today.

Isaiah 28:16→leads toRomans 9:33

Isaiah 28 reads, "Therefore the Lord GOD says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily." (Isaiah 28:16). Paul (Romans 1:1) writes, "even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”" (Romans 9:33). The quotation opens and closes with words of Isaiah 28:16, and between them has words close to Isaiah 8:14's "a stumbling stone and a rock that makes them fall" (Isaiah 8:14). The WEB words the close differently: "shall not act hastily" in Isaiah, "will not be disappointed" in Romans. A few verses on, Paul says who the one to believe in is: "if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9), and "For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”" (Romans 10:11). In Isaiah the stone is the one laid in Zion (Isaiah 28:16); Romans gives its words of believing, and names Jesus as the one believed in. This line says no more than Romans says.

פִּנָּהpinnahsay pin-NAH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "corner". Strong's: "an angle; by implication, a pinnacle; figuratively, a chieftain". "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation" (28:16). In Hebrew a precious cornerstone is two words, pinnat yiqrat, and precious is the word of 1 Kings 5's "costly stones" (1 Kings 5:17). Its tried stone is even bochan, and the Hebrew Bible has bochan only here. Isaiah has pinnah only twice. The other is in the burden of Egypt, of "those who are the cornerstone of her tribes" (Isaiah 19:13). The chapter on Psalm 118 studies the word in "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (Psalm 118:22).