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Isaiah 28 · a question people ask

Why does the chapter end with a farmer plowing and threshing?

In the text

It doesn't say in so many words. It calls for a hearing, "Give ear, and hear my voice!" (28:23), and then asks, "Does he who plows to sow plow continually?" (28:24). The farmer's plowing has an end, each seed has its place (28:25), each crop is threshed its own way (28:27), and "he will not always be threshing it" (28:28). His knowing comes from God: "For his God instructs him in right judgment and teaches him" (28:26), and "This also comes out from the LORD of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom" (28:29). Just before the parable, the chapter speaks of the LORD's "unusual work" (28:21) and says, "for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, GOD of Armies, on the whole earth" (28:22). The chapter sets the parable after those words and doesn't say how the two fit together. These notes don't say either.

From Favor's study of Isaiah 28

Isaiah 28: A precious cornerstone

Ephraim's crown of pride is trodden under foot, and two verses later the LORD of Armies becomes the crown of glory (28:1-5). And the stone laid in Zion (28:16) answers rulers who had made lies their refuge; Romans gives its words as "no one who believes in him will be disappointed" (Romans 9:33), of believing in Jesus.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions