Ésaïe 57

The righteous perish and the idols fail

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

The high God with the crushed and lowly

¹⁵For the One high and lifted up, who dwells in eternity, whose name is Holy, says this: \q My home is the high and holy place, \q yet I am also with the one who is crushed and low in spirit, \q to bring the spirit of the lowly back to life \q and put new life into the hearts of the crushed. ¹⁶For I will not press my case forever, \q nor stay angry for all time; \q otherwise the human spirit would grow faint before me, \q the breath of life that I myself made.^{g 17}Because of his sinful greed I was angry; I struck him, hid my face, and was angry still. \q 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. \q I will guide him \q and give back comfort to him, and to those among his people who mourn. ¹⁹I bring into being the fruit of the lips: \q 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 \q that can never lie calm; \q its waters cast up muck and mud. ²¹There is no peace, \q says my God, for the wicked.