Isaiah 28:10

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁹Who is it He is trying to teach? To whom is He explaining His message? To infants just weaned from milk? To babies removed from the breast? ¹⁰For He says, "Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there."¹¹Indeed, with mocking lips and foreign tongues, He will speak to this people ¹²to whom He has said: "This is the place of rest, let the weary rest; this is the place of repose." But they would not listen. ¹³Then the word of the LORD will come to them: "Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there," so that they will go stumbling backward and be injured, snared, and captured.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

For precept: Isaiah 28:13, Isaiah 5:4, Deuteronomy 6:1-6, 2 Chronicles 36:15, 2 Chronicles 36:16, Nehemiah 9:29, Nehemiah 9:30, Jeremiah 11:7, Jeremiah 25:3-7, Matthew 21:34-41, Philippians 3:1, 2 Timothy 3:7, Hebrews 5:12

must be: or, hath been

Reciprocal: Exodus 4:8 - if they Jeremiah 27:14 - hearken Haggai 1:7 - General Matthew 13:24 - put Matthew 15:16 - General Mark 7:18 - General Luke 13:5 - except

Cross-References

Genesis 11:31
And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.

Genesis 32:10
I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.

Hosea 12:12
Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife-for a wife he tended sheep.

Acts 7:2
And Stephen declared: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

Acts 25:13
After several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice came down to Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For precept [must be] upon precept, precept upon precept,.... Signifying, that they must be dealt with as children were, when first instructed in the rudiments of a language, first had one rule given them, and then another, and so one after another till they had gone through the whole:

line upon line, line upon line; who are taught first to write one line, and then another; or to draw one line, and write after that, and then another; or where to begin one line, and, when finished, where to begin another; for the allusion is to writing by line, and not to a line used in building, as Kimchi and Ben Melech think:

here a little, [and] there a little; a small lesson out of one book, and a small lesson out of another; a little one day, and a little on the next, and so on, that their memories may not be overburdened.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For precept must be upon precept - This is probably designed to ridicule the concise and sententious manner of the prophets, and especially the fact that they dwelt much upon the same elementary truths of religion. In teaching children we are obliged to do it by often repeating the same simple lesson. So the profane and scoffing teachers of the people said it had been with the prophets of God. It had been precept upon precept, and line upon line, in the same way as children had been instructed. The meaning is, ‘there is a constant repetition of the command, without ornament, imagery, or illustration; without an appeal to our understanding, or respect for our reason; it is simply one mandate after another, just as lessons are inculcated upon children.’

Line upon line - This word (קו qav), properly means “a cord, a line;” particularly a measuring cord or line (2 Kings 21:13; Ezekiel 47:13; see the note at Isaiah 18:2). Here it seems to be used in the sense of “a rule,” “law,” or “precept.” Grotius thinks that the idea is taken from schoolmasters who instruct their pupils by making lines or marks for them which they are to trace or imitate. There is a repetition of similar sounds in the Hebrew in this verse which cannot be conveyed in a translation, and which shows their contempt in a much more striking manner than any version could do - לקו קו לקו קו לצו צו לצו צו כי kı̂y tsav lâtsâv tsav lâtsâv qav lâqâv qēv lâqâv.

Here a little and there a little - In the manner of instructing children, inculcating elementary lessons constantly. It may be observed here that God’s method of imparting religious truth has often appeared to a scoffing world to be undignified and foolish. Sinners suppose that he does not sufficiently respect their understanding, and pay a tribute to the dignity of their nature. The truths of God, and his modes of inculcating them, are said to be adapted to the understandings of childhood and of age; to imbecility of years, or to times when the mind is enfeebled by disease.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 28:10. For precept must be upon precept — The original is remarkably abrupt and sententious. The hemistichs are these: -

לצו צו לצו צו כי

latsav tsav latsav tsav ki

לקו קו לקו קו

lakav kav lakav kav

שם זעיר שם זעיר

sham zeeir sham zeeir

For, - Command to command, command to command.

Line to line, line to line.

A little there, a little there.

Kimchi says צו tsav, precept, is used here for מצוה mitsvah, command, and is used in no other place for it but here. צו tsav signifies a little precept, such as is suited to the capacity of a child; see Isaiah 28:9. קו kav signifies the line that a mason stretches out to build a layer of stones by. After one layer or course is placed, he raises the line and builds another; thus the building is by degrees regularly completed. This is the method of teaching children, giving them such information as their narrow capacities can receive; and thus the prophet dealt with the Israelites. See Kimchi in loc., and see a fine parallel passage, Hebrews 5:12-14, by which this may be well illustrated.

My old MS. Bible translates oddly: -

For sende efter sende, sende efter sende:

Abide efter abiide, abiide efter abiide:

Lytyl ther, lytyl ther.

Coverdale is also singular: -

Commande that may be commanded;

Byd that maye be bydden:

Foorbyd that maye be forbydden;

Kepe backe that maye be kepte backe:

Here a litle, there a litle.