Isaiah 28:17
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
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.
American King James Version (AKJV)
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.
American Standard Version (ASV)
And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And I will make right decision the measuring-line, and righteousness the weight: and the ice-storm will take away the safe place of false words, and the secret place will be covered by the flowing waters.
Webster's Revision
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.
World English Bible
I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
English Revised Version (ERV)
And I will make judgment the line, and righteousness the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Definitions for Isaiah 28:17
Barnes's Isaiah 28:17 Bible Commentary
Judgment also will I lay to the line - The sense of this is, I will judge them according to the exact rule of law, as an architect frames everything according to the rule which 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 which are thus indicated, or his frame would not be properly adjusted. So God says that he would judge the people of Jerusalem according to the exact rule, without any intermingling of mercy.
And the hail ... - (see the note at Isaiah 28:2). Hail, hailstones, and floods of waters are frequent images of the divine vengeance and wrath Psalm 105:32; Isaiah 22:19; Isaiah 30:30; Ezekiel 13:13; Ezekiel 38:22; Revelation 8:7; Revelation 11:19; Revelation 16:21.
Wesley's Isaiah 28:17 Bible Commentary
28:17 Plummet - I will execute just judgment, as it were by a line and plummet annexed to it; that is, with exactness and care: I will severely punish, and utterly destroy all who reject that stone. For the line and plummet, or the plumb - line, was not only used in erecting buildings, but also in pulling them down; those parts of the building being thus marked out, which were to be demolished.