Isaiah 28:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Woe to the crown of pride— Or, Woe unto the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of their most glorious beauty, which is upon the head, &c. By the crown of pride of the drunkards, &c. Samaria is primarily to be understood, which is situate, as Maundrell expresses it in words which serve well to elucidate the prophet, upon a long mount of an oval figure, having first a fruitful valley, and then a ring or crown of hills running round about it. Journey from Aleppo, p. 59. The prophet alludes to the crown of flowers worn by the ancients in their drinking-matches. This image is not unfrequently made use of by the prophets to convey the strongest idea of the universal depravity and folly of the nation. In this passage the prophet undertakes to prove the folly of the Ephraimites in their explication of the law; and for that purpose compares the false and delusive professors of this branch of knowledge, to a club of drunkards; introducing JEHOVAH himself, in order to heighten his satire upon drunkenness, as speaking to them in a language to which they are no strangers. This, says Vitringa, is the primary sense of the words; but in an oblique sense they are to be referred to the Jews, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, imitating the foolish proceedings of the Ephraimites, hypocrites, profane, neglectful of God, seeking human aid, (that of the Egyptians we may suppose,) and falling under the same judgment of spiritual drunkenness; whose crown of pride was Jerusalem, and the fading flower of their most glorious beauty, the temple, the glory of their nation, on the top of the fruitful valley which divided mount Moriah from mount Olivet.