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 to come.

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 the sorceress, the offspring of the adulterer and the prostitute.

⁴ Against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience, offspring of falsehood,

⁵ you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who slaughter the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

⁶ Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They are your lot. Even to them you have poured a drink offering. You have offered an offering. Should I be appeased for these things?

⁷ On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. There also you went up to offer sacrifice.

⁸ Behind the doors and the posts you have set up your memorial; for you have uncovered yourself to someone besides me, and have gone up. You have enlarged your bed, and made yourself a covenant with them. You loved their bed where you saw it.

⁹ You went to the king with oil, and increased your perfumes, and sent your ambassadors far off, and debased yourself even to Sheol.

¹⁰ You were wearied with the length of your way; yet you didn’t say, “It is hopeless.” You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren’t faint.

¹¹ Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace even of long time, and you don’t fear me?

¹² I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not profit you.

¹³ When you cry, let those who 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 of the way of my people.”

¹⁵ For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “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 be always angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls which I have made.

¹⁷ I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness, and struck him. I hid myself and was angry. 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.”