By Neil Earle
The early WCG approach to the Bible often cited Isaiah 28:10 in the King James Version: “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept: line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little.”
It is OK to compare Scripture with Scripture or to bring all the texts to bear on a certain subject but it is not wise to “cherry pick” scripture as the mistranslation in Isaiah 28:10 allowed some to do. They could perhaps be forgiven because Isaiah 28:9-13 is woefully mistranslated by the usually astute King James translators. This was explained to the WCG fifteen years ago but new concepts need repeating. Using “here a little and there a little” as an interpretative formula needs revising or we could be drawing in material that does not rightly belong together. Result? “You can prove anything by the Bible!” Alas, too true. The USBC booklet was a classic case.
Yet Isaiah 28 is a rich chapter that yields delight after careful background study. It is quite comical when we reexamine it more closely.
Notice Isaiah 28:1 and the famous “drunkards of Ephraim” reference. This is key and picked up in verse 7, where Isaiah says the prophets and teachers have “erred through strong drink.” They not only get drunk but they vomit out their false teaching—Isaiah really lays it on. The context is Isaiah labeling false teachers drunken sots. Derek Kidner says this was bound to get response. “The reeling, vomiting priests are so vividly drawn that this section is thought to preserve an actual encounter between Isaiah and a group of them in conclave” (New Bible Commentary, page 650).
Kidner is cautious because the Hebrew here is difficult. As a precise Hebrew scholar he knows that verse 10 is a jingle almost the equivalent of our “blah-blah-blah.” This makes sense of verse 9 – “Who does Isaiah think we are, children?” Verse 10 is a lively rhyme in Hebrew.
“saw for
saw, qaw for qaw,
saw for
saw, qaw for qaw,
Little one
here, little one there”
Wow! What does a translator do? This mocking rhyme may be their way of saying, “Isaiah thinks we need to learn our ABCs all over again.” Word Commentary says “this pictures a drunken schoolteacher who orders his pupils to repeat the alphabet and has come to letters SAW and QAW.” Verse 11 could be Isaiah’s tough reply saying, “OK act like children and that’s how you will be treated. God will teach you scornful people (verse 14) the ABCs of faith (verse 13) – saw for saw, qaw for qaw, etc. “Line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept,” is the KJV trying hard to make sense of a made-up jingle.
Prophets are good poets, using forceful speech and even comical stand up routines to get attention but…poetry is notably hard to translate. Try explaining “Hickory Dickory Dock” to a Norwegian. “Here a little, there a little” when used too sweepingly ends up with such misleading false concepts as “leaven ALWAYS means sin” (no – see Matthew 13:33) and “the sun ALWAYS means Baal” (no – Malachi 4:2). So…tread carefully and watch the sweeping generalizations.