Precept upon precept

Isa 28
[5] In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
[Diadem (tiara) of beauty - Yahweh and His government would be to them their chief glory.
The residue - primarily, Judah, in the wealthy reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:7), the elect of G-d; as He here is called their "crown and diadem," so are they called His (Isaiah 62:3).]
[7] 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.
[If one commits like sins they must be chastised by G-d.
Erred - "stagger or reel," through wine, and is applied commonly to those who are intoxicated (Prov. 20:1). It had an effect on their vision and judgment; it disqualified them for the discharge of their duties as priest and prophets.
Priest . . . prophet - If the ministers of religion sin so grievously, how much more the other rulers (Isaiah 56:10,12)!
Swallowed up of wine - they are completely absorbed by it, indulge in its use, and swallowed up by it, so that their reason, and strength, and virtue are all gone.
Vision - even in that most sacred function of the prophet is to declare G-d's will revealed to them. The effect of their overindulgence was that they had themselves no correct and clear views of the truth, and that they led the people into error.
Judgment - (Deuteronomy 17:9, 19:17). The priests had the administration of the Law committed to them. It was against the law for the priests to take wine before entering the Tabernacle (Leviticus 10:9, Ezekiel 44:21).]
[8] For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
[For all tables - at which they sit long in the use of wine.
Vomit and filthiness – words coming out of their mouths, if you are not speaking for
G-d when ministering you are vomiting on His alter!]
[9] Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
[They were scoffers of the manner in which G-d had spoken to them saying: “What! Does G-d treat us as children? Does He deal with us as we deal with infants just weaned, perpetually repeating the same elementary lessons, and teaching the simplexes of knowledge?’
Whom shall he teach knowledge? - Or whom does He teach? Is an expression of contempt supposed to be spoken by the priests and prophets - the leaders of the people. Does He regard us as mere children? Why are we treated as children with an endless repetition of the same elementary instruction?
If you uplift yourself – you must maintain yourself!
To understand doctrine - hearing or report. For who is that instruction intended? Whom does He wish to be taught by it?
Them that are weaned from the milk - does He regard and treat us as mere babes? Pride gos before a fall!]
[10] For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
[Line - a rule or law or precept. The idea is taken from schoolmasters who instruct their pupils by making lines or marks for them that they are to trace or imitate. The repetition of sounds in Hebrew expresses the scorn of the imitators of Isaiah's speaking; he spoke stammering (Isaiah 28:11). G-d's mode of teaching offends by its simplicity the pride of sinners (2 Kings 5:11, 12, 1 Corinthians 1:23).
Here a little and there a little - in the manner of instructing children. G-d’s method of imparting religious truth has often appeared to a scoffing world to be undignified and foolish. Keeping it simple!]
[11] For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
[For - rather, "Truly." This is Isaiah's reply to the scoffers: Your drunken questions shall be answered by the severe lessons from G-d conveyed through the Assyrians and Babylonians; the dialect of these, though Semitic, like the Hebrew, was so far different as to sound to the Jews like the speech of stammerers (compare Isaiah 33:19, 36:11). Stammerers as they were by drunkenness, and children in knowledge of G-d, they needed to be spoken to in the language of children, and "with stammering lips" (compare Matthew 13:13). A just and merciful revenge of the command, without ornament, or illustration, without an appeal to our understanding, or respect for our reason; it is simply one permission after another, just as lessons are taught to children.
Stammering lips - which mean to speak unintelligibly; especially to speak in a foreign language, or to stammer; and then to mock, put down, laugh at, scorn. To them who will not understand G-d will speak still more unintelligibly. Since they refused to hearken to the messages which He sent to them, and which they regarded as adapted only to children, He would teach them in a manner that would be much more humiliating; He would make use of the barbarous language of foreigners to bring them to the true knowledge of G-d.]
[12] To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
[Rather, "He (Adonai) who hath said to the Jews."
This is the rest - Reference may be primarily to "rest" from national warlike preparations, the Jews being at the time "weary" through various previous calamities, as the Syro-Israelite invasion (Isaiah 7:8; compare Isaiah 30:15, 22:8, 39:2, 36:1, 2 Kings 18:8).
This – is the question, what is the rest and the refreshing?
The "rest" spiritually meant is that to be found in obeying those very "precepts" of G-d (Isaiah 28:10), which they jeered at (compare Jeremiah 6:16, Matthew 11:29).
This is the refreshing - this is the way in which the mind may be comforted.
[13] But the word of the L-RD 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.
[But - rather, "Therefore," namely, because "they would not hear" (Isaiah 28:12). They header over and over but were not getting the teaching, delayed obedience is disobedience, serving G-d is not for wimps.
That they might go - the designed result to those who, from a defect of the will, so far from profiting by G-d's mode of instructing, "precept upon precept," made it into a stumbling-block (Hosea 6:5, 8:12, Matthew 13:14).
Go, and fall - image appropriately from "drunkards" (Isaiah 28:7, which they were) who in trying to "go forward fall backward," into captivity, and stumble, and be broken by the judgments of G-d.]
[17] 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.
[Line - the measuring-line of the plummet (fall). "I will appoint judgment for the rule, and justice for the plummet," as an architect frames everything according to the rule that he uses. In other words, there shall be no mercy intermingled. The line is used by a carpenter for measuring; the plummet consists of a piece of lead attached to a string, and is also used by carpenters to obtain a perpendicular line. A carpenter works exactly according to the lines that are thus indicated, or his frame would not be properly adjusted. As the corner stone stands most upright and exactly balanced, so Adonai, while holding out grace to believers in the foundation stone, will judge the scoffers (Isaiah 28:15) according to the exact justice of the law (compare James 2:13).
Hail, hailstones, and floods of water are frequent images of divine judgment (Isaiah 30:30, 32:19).]
[26] For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
[To discretion - in the due rules of husbandry; G-d first taught it to man (Genesis 3:23). It is by the study of what G-d teaches in the seasons, in the soil, in the results of experience and observation, that he has this art. He teaches him also by the example, the counsel, and even by the failures of others; and all the knowledge of agriculture that he has is to be traced up to G-d.]
[29] This also cometh forth from the L-RD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
[This also - The skill wherewith the husbandman duly adjusts his modes of threshing is given by G-d, as well as the skill (Isaiah 28:26) wherewith he tills and sows (Isaiah 28:24,25). Therefore He must also be able to adapt His modes of treatment to the several moral needs of His creatures.
Excellent in working or magnifies his wisdom and understanding.
His object in sending tribulation (derived from the Latin tribulum, a "threshing instrument," Luke 22:31, Romans 5:3) is to sever the moral chaff from the wheat, not to crush utterly; "His judgments are usually in the line of our offenses; by the nature of the judgments we may usually ascertain the nature of the sin".]