Bible Strands
Isaiah 28:17
I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Jerusalem’s leaders who have negotiated a false covenant with death and Sheol. This declaration immediately follows the promise of a tested cornerstone in Zion and precedes the warning that their alliances will be dissolved.
The words — The text employs mishpat (justice) as a qav (measuring line) and tzedaqah (righteousness) as a mishqaleth (leveling tool) to describe divine standards. These construction terms establish an absolute benchmark against which the nation’s actions will be measured.
The thread — This imagery of a measuring line and plumb line reappears in 2 Kings 21:13 against Jerusalem and Amos 7:7 against Israel, while the hail motif echoes Revelation 16:21. The progression moves from national judgment to cosmic execution.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human strategies cannot survive divine measurement. It requires abandoning false security and aligning with the established standard before the sweeping judgment arrives.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 21:13 I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab, and I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down.
- Amos 7:7 This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.
- Revelation 16:21 And great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each rained down on them from above. And men cursed God for the plague of hail, because it was so horrendous.
- Isaiah 28:2 Behold, the Lord has one who is strong and mighty. Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest, like a driving rain or flooding downpour, he will smash that crown to the ground.
- Jeremiah 7:14 therefore what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears My Name, the house in which you trust, the place that I gave to you and your fathers.
- Romans 2:2 And we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
- Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- Revelation 11:19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
- Exodus 9:18 Behold, at this time tomorrow I will rain down the worst hail that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded until now.
- Joshua 10:11 As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the LORD cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by the swords of the Israelites.