Bible Strands
Isaiah 28:7
These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Isaiah pronounces judgment on Judah’s religious leaders, priests and prophets, who have abandoned their duties during a period of national corruption and spiritual decay.
The words — שָׁגוּ (sha.Gu) = they reeled and תָּעוּ (ta.'U) = they staggered. These verbs describe the physical collapse of the leaders as they lose their capacity to see and judge correctly.
The thread — Proverbs 20:1 identifies wine and strong drink as agents that lead the unwary astray. Luke 21:34 warns believers against hearts weighed down by dissipation and drunkenness, tracking the same pattern of alcohol impairing spiritual vigilance.
Why it lands — The text requires those in leadership to maintain sobriety, since compromised discernment directly destroys their ability to deliver justice and convey accurate revelation.
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
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 drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 56:10 Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.
- Luke 21:34 But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
- Proverbs 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
- Ecclesiastes 10:17 Blessed are you, O land whose king is a son of nobles, and whose princes feast at the proper time—for strength and not for drunkenness.
- Isaiah 19:14 The LORD has poured into her a spirit of confusion. Egypt has been led astray in all she does, as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.
- Micah 2:11 If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!
- Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
- Leviticus 10:9 “You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink when you enter the Tent of Meeting, or else you will die; this is a permanent statute for the generations to come.
- Psalms 107:27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.
- Isaiah 3:12 Youths oppress My people, and women rule over them. O My people, your guides mislead you; they turn you from your paths.