The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Isaiah 57
1 The righteous perish,
and no one lays it to heart.
Merciful men are taken away,
and no one considers that the righteous
is taken away from the evil.
2 He enters into peace. They rest in their beds,
each one who walks in his uprightness.
3 “But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress,
you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes.
4 Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide
mouth and stick out your tongue?
Aren’t you children of disobedience
and offspring of falsehood,
5 you who inflame yourselves among the
oaks, under every green tree;
who kill the children in the valleys,
under the clefts of the rocks?
6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is
your portion. They, they are your lot.
You have even poured a drink offering to
them. You have offered an offering.
Shall I be appeased for these things?
7 On a high and lofty mountain you have
set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
8 You have set up your memorial behind
the doors and the posts, for you have exposed yourself to
someone besides me, and have gone up.
You have enlarged your bed
and made you a covenant with them.
You loved what you saw on their bed.
9 You went to the king with oil,
increased your perfumes,
sent your ambassadors far off,
and degraded yourself even to Sheol.†
10 You were wearied with the length of
your ways; yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’
You found a reviving of your strength;
therefore you weren’t faint.
11 “Whom have you dreaded and feared,
so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor
laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time,
and you don’t fear me?
12 I will declare your righteousness;
and as for your works, they will not
benefit you.
13 When you cry, let those whom you have
gathered deliver you, but the wind will take them.
A breath will carry them all away but he who takes refuge in me will possess
the land, and will inherit my holy mountain.”
14 He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare
the way! Remove the stumbling-block out ofthe
way of my people.”
15 For the high and lofty One who inhabits
eternity, whose name is Holy, says:
“I dwell in the high and holy place, with
him also who is of a contrite and
humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 For I will not contend forever, neither
will I always be angry;
for the spirit would faint before me,
and the souls whom I have made.
17 I was angry because ofthe iniquity of his
covetousness and struck him.
I hid myself and was angry;
and he went on backsliding in the way
of his heart.
18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him.
I will lead him also, and restore comforts
to him and to his mourners.
19 I create the fruit of the lips:
Peace, peace, to him who is far off and
to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”
20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea;
for it can’t rest and its waters cast up
mire and mud.
21 “There is no peace”, says my God,
“for the wicked.”