Isaiah 57

1The righteous person perishes, and no one gives it a thought. Those who show loyal love are gathered away, and no one sees that the righteous is gathered away from the evil. 2He goes in to peace. Those who walk the straight way find rest on their beds. 3As for you, step up here, you children of a witch, you breed of an adulterer and a prostitute! 4Who is it you are jeering at? At whom do you open your mouths wide and stick out your tongues? Are you not children born of rebellion, offspring of lies, 5you who inflame yourselves with lust among the oaks, under every leafy tree, who butcher children in the stream beds below the clefts of the cliffs? 6With the smooth stones of the stream bed lies your share; those, those are your allotment. Even to them you have poured out drink offerings and lifted up grain offerings. Am I to be soothed by this? 7On a mountain high and lifted up you have laid out your bed, and there too you have gone up to offer sacrifice. 8Behind the door and its doorpost you have put your reminder. You deserted me: you stripped, climbed in, and made your bed wide. You struck a bargain with them for yourself; you loved their bed; you gazed at their nakedness. 9You went to the king with olive oil and heaped up your perfumes. You sent your envoys far away, and you sank down as far as Sheol. 10You wore yourself out with all your traveling, yet you never said, “It is no use.” Your arm found fresh life, so you did not give way. 11Whom did you dread so much, whom did you fear, that you turned false, and did not remember me or give me a thought? Was it that I stayed silent so long that you no longer fear me? 12I will lay bare what you call your righteousness, and your deeds as well; they will be of no use to you. 13When you call for help, let your crowd of idols rescue you! The wind will sweep every one of them away; a puff of air will carry them off. But whoever takes shelter in me will receive the land as an inheritance and will own my holy mountain. 14Then the word will go out: “Raise a highway, raise it up, clear a path! Lift every stumbling block out of the road my people travel.”

15For the One high and lifted up, who dwells in eternity, whose name is Holy, says this: My home is the high and holy place, yet I am also with the one who is crushed and low in spirit, to bring the spirit of the lowly back to life and put new life into the hearts of the crushed. 16For I will not press my case forever, nor stay angry for all time; otherwise the human spirit would grow faint before me, the breath of life that I myself made. 17Because of his sinful greed I was angry; I struck him, hid my face, and was angry still. Yet he kept turning away, going the way his own heart chose. 18I have seen the paths he has taken, but I will heal him. I will guide him and give back comfort to him, and to those among his people who mourn. 19I bring into being the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to those far off and to those close at hand, says the LORD, and I will heal them. 20But the wicked are like the churning sea that can never lie calm; its waters cast up muck and mud. 21There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.