# Isaiah 57 [[Isaiah 56|←]] • [[Isaiah 58|→]] --- ### 1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth to heart: and merciful men taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil ### 2 He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, walking his uprightness. ### 3 But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. ### 4 Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, draw out the tongue? ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, ### 5 Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? ### 6 Among the smooth of the stream thy portion; they, they thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these? ### 7 Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice. ### 8 Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest ### 9 And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase unto hell. ### 10 Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved. ### 11 And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid to thy heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not? ### 12 I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee. ### 13 When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain; ### 14 And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people. ### 15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name Holy; I dwell in the high and holy with him also of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. ### 16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls I have made. ### 17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. ### 18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. ### 19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to far off, and to near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him. ### 20 But the wicked like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. ### 21 no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.