The First Woe. The Coming Judgment on Ephraim Because of Its Parlous Condition (Isaiah 28:1-4).
Here Israel is depicted as a drunken festival king, proudly wearing a garland of faded flowers, while sadly unaware of its true condition, who is soon to be dragged down to earth by the Lord's ‘strong one'.
Analysis.
a Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley of those who are overcome with wine (Isaiah 28:1).
b Behold the Lord has a mighty and strong one (Isaiah 28:2 a).
c As a tempest of hail, a destroying storm (Isaiah 28:2 b).
c As a tempest of mighty waters overflowing (Isaiah 28:2 c).
b He will cast down to the earth with the hand (2d).
a The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, will be trodden underfoot, and the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, will be as the first-ripe fig before the summer, which when he who looks on it sees, he eats it up while it is yet in his hand (Isaiah 28:3-4).
In ‘a' we have a woe to ‘the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley', and in the parallel what is to happen to their crown, their fading flower and the head of the fat valley. In ‘b' we have the Lord's mighty and strong one, and in the parallel what he will do. In ‘c' we have comparative descriptions.
‘Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim,
And to the fading flower of his glorious beauty,
Which is on the head of the fat valley of those who are overcome with wine.'
A woe is called on Samaria. because of its ‘crown of pride'. It is within God's sights for judgment, and the reason for it is clearly revealed. It is like a crowned ‘king of the festival', slumped on his throne, and yet drunkenly proud, who in his drunken state wears, with inordinate pride, a crown which was once beautiful but was now a faded and wilted garland of dying flowers, and is unaware of his true condition.
The fat valley is probably to be seen as that outside Samaria with its fertile fields and terraced vineyards. Its ‘head' is the proud city of Samaria, perched on its hill. It is pictured as proudly wearing the garland crown as it drunkenly celebrates, depicting the residents of Samaria, ‘the drunkards of Ephraim', as behaving as though they were in a permanently inebriated condition. It is a sad picture, for its supposed glorious beauty, its flowered crown of which it is so ridiculously proud, is seen on closer inspection to be made up of but fading, wilting flowers. It is a crown only the foolishly drunken could be proud of, for although worn with drunken pride it is made up of the wilting blooms which are a pathetic last remnants of good days gone by, which would have been discarded by any but those well inebriated.
So the residents of Ephraim are pictured as proud, but not justly so, because in their pride they behave like inebriated sots, proud in spite of being in a dishevelled and careless condition, and glorying in folly and in a faded past. They fail to see what they really are. But they are too proud to turn to Yahweh. Compare here Isaiah 9:8-12 where a similar attitude is revealed. Ephraim, as the largest tribe numerically in the northern kingdom, here represents Israel, and thus reveals Israel as a whole to be in a sad condition.
‘Behold the Lord has a mighty and strong one.
As a tempest of hail, a destroying storm,
As a tempest of mighty waters overflowing
He will cast down to the earth with the hand.
The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim,
Will be trodden underfoot,
And the fading flower of his glorious beauty,
Which is on the head of the fat valley,
Will be as the first-ripe fig before the summer,
Which when he who looks on it sees, he eats it up while it is yet in his hand.'
In contrast to these proud and drunken fools is the sovereign Lord's ‘mighty and strong one'. Previously they had been chastised by the invasions of Syria and Philistia (Isaiah 9:12), now they will have to face a greater. He is in perfect condition and comes to cast Samaria down to earth with his hand, descending on them like a tempest of hail, like a destroying storm, like a tempest of mighty waters overflowing. The dreadful storm and hail pour down on them and soon produce the fearsome flash floods which overwhelm them.
And he will tread underfoot Ephraim's proud but wilting crown, and eat up the contents of the faded garland, in the same way as someone who notices the first ripe fig, casually picks it and eats it up immediately. Her pride will have collapsed. It will be all over in moments, plucked by a stranger.
There can be little doubt that Assyria is in mind here, but Isaiah keeps it deliberately anonymous. He is concerned that all should recognise that this is the hand of the sovereign Lord, Yahweh. Yahweh could have used whoever He wanted to. It is a further reminder that Assyria is His, to do with as He will, and that it is at His behest that they are ‘the rod of His anger' (Isaiah 10:5).