Isaiah 57

¹ The upright perish and no one cares. Devout men are taken off and no one gives it a thought. Yes, on account of evil the upright man is taken off

² to enter peace. They lie on their beds those who followed the right way.

³ But you, you sons of a witch, come here, offspring of the adulterer and the whore.

⁴ At whom are you jeering, and making faces, and sticking out your tongue? Are you not the spawn of sin, children of lies?

⁵ Lusting among the terebinths, and under every spreading tree, sacrificing children in the wadis and in rocky clefts.

⁶ The smooth stones of the wadis, these are your share, these, these your portion. To these you pour libations, bring oblations. Can all this appease me?

⁷ On a mountain high and lofty you have put your bed. Thither, too, you have climbed to offer sacrifice.

⁸ Behind door and doorpost you have set up your sign.[*a] Yes, far removed from me, you unroll your bedding, climb into it and spread it wide. You have struck a pact with those whose bed you love, whoring with them often with your eyes on the sacred symbol.

⁹ With oil you made yourself look your best for Molech, lavishing your scents; you sent your envoys far afield, down to Sheol itself.[*b]

¹⁰ Tired with so much journeying, you never said, ‘I give up’. Finding your strength revived, you never weakened.

¹¹ Who was it you dreaded, and feared, that you should disown me and not remember me, and refuse me a place in your heart? Meanwhile I kept silent and shut my eyes, did I not? So you cannot have been afraid of me.

¹² But now I will expose this integrity of yours and your futile actions.

¹³ When you cry, let your hateful idols save you! The wind will carry them all away, a breath will take them off. But whoever trusts in me shall inherit the land and own my holy mountain.

¹⁴ It shall be said: Open up, open up, clear the way, remove all obstacles from the way of my people.

¹⁵ For thus speaks the Most High, whose home is in eternity, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but I am also with the contrite and humbled spirit, to give the humbled spirit new life, to revive contrite hearts.

¹⁶ ‘For I will not quarrel for ever nor be always angry, for then the spirit would give way before me, the very souls I have made.

¹⁷ ‘Angered by his wicked brutality, I hid my face and struck him in anger. Like a rebel he went the way of his choice;

¹⁸ but I have seen the way he went. But I will heal him, and console him, I will comfort him to the full, both him and his afflicted fellows,

¹⁹ bringing praise to their lips. Peace, peace to far and near, I will indeed heal him’ says Yahweh.

²⁰ The wicked however are like the restless sea that cannot be still, and washes up mud and slime.

²¹ ‘No peace’ says my God ‘for the wicked.’