“Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.”
My Notes
What Does Isaiah 28:22 Mean?
Isaiah warns against mockery: "Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth." The consequence of mockery is strengthened bondage — the chains that bind you will tighten. And the reason: Isaiah has heard directly from God that comprehensive judgment is coming.
The word "mockers" (letsim — scoffers, those who ridicule, people who treat serious things dismissively) identifies the audience: people who heard Isaiah's warnings and responded with ridicule. The mockery isn't about humor. It's about dismissal — treating the prophetic word as unworthy of serious response.
The "bands made strong" (moser chazaq — bonds strengthened, fetters tightened) means the mockery produces its own bondage. The person who dismisses the prophetic warning doesn't remain free. Their chains get tighter. The dismissal that felt like freedom from the prophet's uncomfortable message produces the opposite: deeper captivity.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What prophetic warnings are you currently dismissing with mockery or sophisticated disbelief?
- 2.How does mockery strengthening bonds (tightening chains) challenge the assumption that dismissal has no consequences?
- 3.What does Isaiah having 'heard from the Lord GOD' (direct revelation, not speculation) add to the stakes of the warning?
- 4.Where might your intellectual superiority about divine warnings actually be the mechanism deepening your bondage?
Devotional
Don't mock. Or your chains will tighten. Isaiah warns the scoffers that their ridicule of the prophetic word doesn't produce freedom from the word. It produces deeper bondage to the judgment the word describes.
The mockers (letsim) are the people who heard Isaiah's warnings and laughed. The prophetic message about coming judgment was met with dismissal, sarcasm, and the cultural sophistication that treats divine warnings as beneath serious consideration. The mockery felt like intellectual superiority. Isaiah says it's actually the mechanism that strengthens your chains.
The bands-made-strong consequence is the verse's most counter-intuitive insight: you'd expect mockery to have no consequence (it's just words, just an attitude). Isaiah says the mockery actively tightens the bondage. The dismissal of the warning doesn't just fail to free you. It imprisons you more deeply. Every sarcastic response to God's prophetic word is another turn of the key in the lock.
The reason — 'I have heard from the Lord GOD' — establishes the stakes: the judgment is confirmed at the highest level. Isaiah isn't speculating. He's reporting. The consumption (kalah — a complete end, a total destruction, a finishing) has been determined (charats — decided, decreed, cut in stone) upon the whole earth. The scope is comprehensive. The decision is final. And the mockers are tightening their chains against the very judgment they're ridiculing.
The modern application is immediate: every dismissal of divine warning — every sarcastic tweet about God's judgment, every sophisticated eye-roll at prophetic urgency, every 'that'll never happen' spoken with confident superiority — is a band being strengthened. The mockery doesn't prove you're free. It proves you're getting more bound.
Are you mocking what you should be heeding?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Give ye ear, and hear my voice,.... So said the prophet, as the Targum introduces the words; and because what he was…
Now therefore - In view of the certain judgment which God will bring upon you. Be ye not mockers - This was the…
The prophet, having reproved those that made a jest of the word of God, here goes on to reprove those that made a jest…
A final appeal to the "scoffers" (Isa 28:28), based on the irreversible decision of Jehovah.
be ye not mockers do not…
Cross References
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