What is the context?
The warning begins with Ephraim’s proud crown and fading beauty. A strong attacker is pictured as hail, a destructive storm and flooding rain. What appears glorious will be swallowed as quickly as an early ripe fig.
For the surviving people, the Lord Himself becomes the crown of glory, a source of justice and strength. Yet the next scene exposes priests and prophets staggering under strong drink, failing in the very visions and judgments they are supposed to give.
The questions about teaching infants and the repeated lines about order and line show how badly the message is being received. The Lord had offered rest for the weary, but they would not listen.
Foreign lips and tongues will now become part of how He addresses them. The words they would not receive bring no security to their resistance: the passage ends in stumbling, injury, entrapment and capture.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry, Wesley and Gill connect the repeated instruction with people who need to be taught like children but resist learning. They emphasize the contrast between God’s offer of rest and the people’s refusal.
The Cambridge commentary instead reads verses 9–10 as the drunken leaders mocking Isaiah: they resent being addressed like recently weaned children and imitate his repeated instruction. It then reads the foreign speech as the terrible answer to their mockery.
The readings differ over who speaks the repeated words and how they function. Both connect the foreign language with judgment after the people refuse a message they could understand.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
First Corinthians 14:20–25 directly quotes Isaiah’s warning about foreign tongues and refusal to listen. Paul brings it into his discussion of tongues, prophecy, understanding and the response of unbelievers.
He goes on to describe the danger of an outsider hearing a gathering full of uninterpreted tongues and thinking the believers are out of their minds. By contrast, a message that exposes the heart can lead an unbeliever to fall down and worship God.
The connection keeps the purpose of God’s speech in view. Receiving His message matters more than being impressed by an unusual sound; Paul’s concern is that what happens among believers serves understanding and a right response to God.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.