Isaiah 57

Isaiah 57

Israel’s Futile Idolatry

¹The righteous perish,[#Ps 12.1; Isa 42.25; 47.7, 11]

and no one considers why;

the devout are taken away,

while no one understands

that it is due to evil that the righteous are taken away.

²Those who walk uprightly enter into peace[#Isa 26.7]

and rest on their couches.

³But as for you, come here,[#Isa 1.21; Mt 16.4]

you children of a sorceress,

you offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.

⁴Whom are you mocking?[#Isa 48.8]

Against whom do you open your mouth wide

and stick out your tongue?

Are you not children of transgression,

the offspring of deceit—

⁵you who burn with lust among the oaks,[#Lev 18.21; 2 Kings 16.3, 4; Jer 7.31]

under every green tree;

you who slaughter your children in the valleys,

under the clefts of the rocks?

⁶Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;[#Jer 3.9; 5.9, 29; 7.18]

it is they who are your lot;

to them you have poured out a drink offering;

you have brought a grain offering.

Should these acts cause me to relent?

⁷Upon a high and lofty mountain[#Ezek 16.16; 23.14]

you have set your bed,

and there you went up to offer sacrifice.

⁸Behind the door and the doorpost[#Ezek 16.26, 28; 23.7, 18]

you have set up your symbol,

for in deserting me you have uncovered your bed;

you have gone up to it;

you have made it wide;

and you have made a bargain for yourself with them;

you have loved their bed;

you have gazed on their nakedness.

⁹You journeyed to Molech with oil[#Ezek 23.16, 40; #57.9 Or the king]

and multiplied your perfumes;

you sent your envoys far away

and sent them down to Sheol.

¹⁰You grew weary from your many wanderings,[#Isa 47.13; Jer 2.25]

but you did not say, “It is no use!”

You found your desire rekindled,

and so you did not weaken.

¹¹Whom did you dread and fear[#v 1 ; Ps 50.21; Isa 51.12; Jer 2.32]

so that you lied

and did not remember me

or give me a thought?

Have I not kept silent and closed my eyes,

and so you do not fear me?

¹²I will announce your verdict,

and the objects you made will not help you.

¹³When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you![#Isa 25.4; 60.21; 65.9; Jer 22.20]

The wind will carry them off;

a breath will take them away.

But whoever takes refuge in me shall possess the land

and inherit my holy mountain.

A Promise of Help and Healing

¹⁴It shall be said,[#Isa 62.10; Jer 18.15]

“Build up, build up, prepare the way;

remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”

¹⁵For thus says the high and lofty one[#Ps 14.2, 3; 34.18; 51.17; Isa 40.28; 52.13; 61.1; 66.1]

who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

I dwell in the high and holy place

and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit,

to revive the spirit of the humble

and to revive the heart of the contrite.

¹⁶For I will not continually accuse,[#Gen 6.3; Job 34.14; Ps 85.5; 103.9; Isa 42.5; Mic 7.18]

nor will I always be angry,

for then the spirits would grow faint before me,

even the souls that I have made.

¹⁷Because of their wicked covetousness I was angry;[#Isa 1.4; Jer 6.13]

I struck them; I hid and was angry,

but they kept turning back to their own ways.

¹⁸I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;

I will lead them and repay them with comfort,

¹⁹creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips.[#Isa 52.12; 53.5; 61.1–3; Acts 2.39; Eph 2.17; Heb 13.15; #57.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain]

Peace, peace, to the far and the near, says the Lord ,

and I will heal them.

²⁰But the wicked are like the tossing sea[#Job 18.5–14]

that cannot keep still;

its waters toss up mire and mud.

²¹There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.[#Isa 48.22]