Isaiah 57

¹ The upright person perishes and no one cares. The faithful is taken off and no one takes it to heart.Yes, because of the evil times the upright is taken off;

² he wil enter peace, and those who fol ow the right way wil find rest on their beds.

³ But you, you children of a witch, come here, adulterous race prostituting yourselves!

⁴ At whom are you jeering, at whom are you making faces and sticking out your tongue? Are you not thespawn of rebel ion, a lying race?

⁵ Lusting among the terebinths, and under every spreading tree, sacrificing children in the ravines, belowthe clefts in the rocks.

⁶ The smooth stones of the ravines wil be your portion, yes, these wil be your lot. To these you havepoured libations, have brought your cereal offering. Can al 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 your reminder. Yes, far from me, you exposed yourself,climbed on to your bed, and made the most of it. You struck a profitable bargain with those whose bed you love,whoring with them often, with your eyes on the sacred symbol.

⁹ You went to Molech with oil, you were prodigal with your perfumes; you sent your envoys far afield,down to Sheol itself.

¹⁰ Though tired by so much travel ing, you never said, 'It is no use.' Finding your strength revive, younever gave up.

¹¹ Who was it you dreaded, and feared, that you should betray me, no longer remember me and notspare a thought for me? Was I not silent for a long time? So you cannot have been afraid of me.

¹² Now I shall expose this uprightness of yours, and little good it did you.

¹³ When you cry for help, let those thronging round you save you! The wind wil carry them al away, onepuff wil take them off. But whoever trusts in me wil inherit the country, he wil own my holy mountain.

¹⁴ Then it wil be said: Level up, level up, clear the way, remove the obstacle from my people's way,

¹⁵ for thus says the High and Exalted One who lives eternal y and whose name is holy, 'I live in the holyheights but I am with the contrite and humble, to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite.

¹⁶ 'For I do not want to be forever accusing nor always to be angry, or the spirit would fail under myonslaught, the souls that I myself have made.

¹⁷ 'Angered by his wicked cupidity, I hid and struck him in anger, but he rebelliously went the way of hischoice.

¹⁸ 'I saw how he behaved, but I shal heal him, I shal lead him, fil him with consolation, him and thosewho mourn for him,

¹⁹ bringing praise to their lips. Peace, peace to far and near, Yahweh says, and I shall heal him.'

²⁰ The wicked, however, are like the restless sea that cannot be stil , whose waters throw up mud anddirt.

²¹ 'No peace', says Yahweh, 'for the wicked.'