Drunkards of Ephraim

"Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!

"Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.

"The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:

"And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up" (Isa. 28:4).

Gileadi's translation of the original Hebrew is helpful:

"Woe to the garlands of glory of the drunkards of Ephraim!  Their crowning splendor has become as fading wreaths on the heads of the opulent overcome with wine.

"My Lord has in store one mighty and strong: as a ravaging hailstorm sweeping down, or like an inundating deluge of mighty waters, he will hurl them to the ground by his hand.

"The proud garlands of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden underfoot.

"And the fading wreaths, the crowns of glory on the heads of the opulent, shall be like the first-ripe fruit before summer harvest: he who sees it devours it the moment he has hold of it" (Gileadi, The Apocalyptic Book of Isaiah 28:1-4).

The drunkenness with which Ephraim stumbles is not from wine or strong drink.  Rather, it is error and blindness (Isa. 29:9-10).  The sun has gone down over the prophets, and the day is dark over them (Micah 3:6).  There is no answer from God (Micah 3:7).  "They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.  The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us" (Micah 3:10-11).  "And thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn" (D&C 87:6).

The crown of pride is above all, yea is more proud than all the earth (3 Ne. 16:10).  It shall be trodden under foot (Isa. 28:3; 3 Ne. 16:15).  That which was beautiful has become a fading flower.  The valleys are fat.  The consumption decreed shall make an end of all nations (Isa. 28:22; D&C 87:6).

"Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?

"For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:

"That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.

"Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale" (Isa. 29:17, 20-22).