Isaiah 28:13
ESV
And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
NIV
So then, the word of the Lord to them will become: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there— so that as they go they will fall backward; they will be injured and snared and captured.
NASB
So the word of the Lord to them will be, 'Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,' That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.
CSB
The word of the Lord will come to them: "Law after law, law after law, line after line, line after line, a little here, a little there," so they go stumbling backward, to be broken, trapped, and captured.
NLT
So the Lord will spell out his message for them again, one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there, so that they will stumble and fall. They will be injured, trapped, and captured.
KJV
But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
NKJV
But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” That they might go and fall backward, and be broken And snared and caught.
What does Isaiah 28:13 mean?
Isaiah repeats the words of his mockers (Isaiah 28:10). They made a parody of Isaiah's attempts to proclaim the Lord's message, speaking as if Isaiah were teaching simple ideas to children: "Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule, here a little, there a little." In Hebrew, these words also rhyme and the sentence sounds like the simple noises made by an infant. The implication is that Isaiah was stuck teaching a literal obedience to God's ways. But this was something his critics had given up—"grown out of"—just as many people today have excused rejection of God's word.Here, Isaiah returns their words in a threatening tone. The Lord will use the pagan Assyrians to teach Israel these: "Do and do, rule on rule…" Isaiah even extends the sing-song pattern: in Hebrew, the consequences are yēleku' w koslu' 'āhor', w nisbāru, w noqesu', w nilkādu. This creates a dramatic transition into the next passage, where the verb for "hear" is simu'.
Israel will learn the hard way. When the invaders come, the Israelites will fall back and be injured, caught, and captured. Most who survive the onslaught will be exiled to foreign lands. They would wish they had listened to Isaiah's message and changed course when they could.
