Isaiah 57

¹The 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. ²He 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. ⁴Whom 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, ⁵you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? ⁶Among 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? ⁷On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice. ⁸You 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. ⁹You went to the king with oil, and increased your perfumes, and sent your ambassadors far off, and degraded yourself even to Sheol. ¹⁰You 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? ¹²I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not benefit you. ¹³When 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.” ¹⁴He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.” ¹⁵For 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. ¹⁶For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls whom I have made. ¹⁷I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness, and struck him; I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. ¹⁸I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. ¹⁹I 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.” ²⁰But 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.”

World English Bible (public domain)