Isaiah 28:11-12
“For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”
King James Version
More of Isaiah 28 on this siteIsaiah 28:16
God would speak to His people with stammering lips and another tongue, and call it the rest and the refreshing. Paul applies it to speaking in tongues.
Fulfillment References
1 Corinthians 14:21-22 Acts 2:4 Acts 3:19
How Traditions Read This Prophecy
Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalPaul quotes this verse about speaking in tongues: 'With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people' (1 Cor. 14:21). Isaiah calls it 'the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and... the refreshing.' Peter used the same word soon after Pentecost: 'times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord' (Acts 3:19). The Holy Ghost with tongues is rest for the weary. And the warning stands: 'yet they would not hear.'
JewishRead in context as a judgment: Israel ignored the prophets' plain speech, so God would speak through foreign invaders, the Assyrians.
CatholicPaul's use applies it to the gift of tongues as a sign to unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22).
ProtestantPaul applies it to tongues as a sign to unbelievers. Many read Isaiah's original as the Assyrian judgment.
OrthodoxApplied by Paul to the gift of tongues.
DispensationalA sign to unbelieving Israel, fulfilled when the gospel came with tongues at Pentecost.
AcademicIn Isaiah 28 the 'stammering lips' are the foreign speech of the Assyrian conquerors. Paul's citation in 1 Corinthians 14:21 differs from both the Hebrew and the Greek text.
Open the full interactive entry →
Audio narration (listen to this prophecy read aloud), cross-references, Hebrew/Greek, Dead Sea Scrolls notes, a prophetic timeline, network maps, study tools and multi-tradition analysis in the interactive explorer.
Bible Prophecy Explorer · based on J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy catalogue · an openly Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal study resource — all traditions presented fairly. Pastor: C. Myles Young, D.Min. · Bishop: Nathaniel J. Wilson, Ed.D.