What is the context?
The Valley of Vision is identified within the passage by the City of David and the houses of Jerusalem. The opening confronts a noisy, celebrating city with death, flight and capture. The prophet responds with bitter grief over his own people.
The threat grows visible in chariots, horsemen and exposed defenses. The people inspect weapons, collect water, count houses and demolish buildings to strengthen the wall.
Verse 11 names the failure behind these preparations: they do not look to the One who made and planned it. Their activity does not become dependence on God. When the Lord calls for mourning and repentance, they answer with feasting and the thought that death may come tomorrow.
The closing declaration makes their response a grave matter. This is not an ordinary celebration misunderstood by an anxious observer; it is refusal of the Lord’s call in the face of judgment.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry and Gill emphasize misplaced confidence. Gill explicitly says that the preparations themselves are not the fault; the people trust their defenses while failing to look to God.
The historical setting is discussed differently. Wesley connects the captured rulers with Zedekiah and the Babylonian crisis. Gill reads the threat in the setting of Sennacherib’s invasion during Hezekiah’s reign. Both readings identify Jerusalem’s refusal to respond rightly to God as the central issue.
Henry and Gill connect the defiant feast with living as though there is no life beyond death. Their emphasis is on the refusal to repent, rather than a general condemnation of food, drink or practical preparations.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
First Corinthians 15:32–34 directly uses the words about eating and drinking because tomorrow brings death. Paul sets that reasoning against the truth of resurrection and urges the believers to stop sinning.
His wider argument is that Christ’s resurrection changes everything: if Christ has not been raised, faith is futile and the dead have perished (1 Corinthians 15:12–19). Isaiah’s exposed attitude therefore becomes part of the New Testament’s explanation of why hope beyond death matters for how people live now.
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.