The blessed death of the righteous.

57:1 The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart;
and merciful men are taken away,
none considering that
the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

57:2 He enters into peace; they rest in their beds,
each one who walks in his uprightness.

God reproves the Jews for their whorish idolatry.

57:3 “But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress,
the seed of the adulterer and the prostitute.

57:4 Against whom do you sport yourselves?
Against whom do you make a wide mouth,
and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children
of disobedience, a seed of falsehood,

57:5 you who inflame yourselves among the oaks,
under every green tree;
who kill the children in the valleys,
under the clefts of the rocks?

57:6 Among 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?

57:7 On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed;
there also you went up to offer sacrifice.

57:8 Behind the doors and the posts you have set up your memorial:
for you have uncovered to someone besides me,
and have gone up;
you have enlarged your bed,
and made you a covenant with them:
you loved their bed where you saw it.

57:9 You went to the king with oil,
and did increase your perfumes,
and did send your ambassadors far off,
and debased yourself even to Sheol.

57:10 You were wearied with the length of your way;
yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’
You found a reviving of your strength;
therefore you weren’t faint.

57:11 “Of whom have you been afraid and in fear,
that you lie, and have not remembered me,
nor laid it to your heart?
Haven’t I held my peace even of long time,
and you don’t fear me?

57:12 I will declare your righteousness;
and as for your works, they shall not profit you.

He gives promises of mercy to the penitent.

57:13 When you cry, let those who you have gathered deliver you;
but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry them all away:
but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land,
and shall inherit my holy mountain.”

57:14 He will say,

“Cast up, cast up, prepare the way,
take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”

57:15 For 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.

57:16 For I will not contend forever,
neither will I be always angry;
for the spirit would faint before me,
and the souls who I have made.

57:17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry,
and struck him; I hid my face and was angry;
and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

57:18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him:
I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him
and to his mourners.

57:19 I 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.”

57:20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea;
for it can’t rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.

57:21 “There is no peace,”

says my God,

“for the wicked.”