Isaiah 57

1 Look, the righteous person has died, but no one takes it to heart. Righteous people are taken away, but no one considers that the righteous person has been taken away from the presence of wrongdoing.

2 His burial will be peaceful; he has been taken from among us.

3 But come near, you lawless children, offspring of adulterers and a prostitute.

4 In what have you indulged? Against whom have you opened your mouth and loosened your tongue? Are you not children of destruction, lawless offspring,

5 who call on idols under leafy trees and kill your children in the valleys among the rocks?

6 This is your portion and your lot. You poured out drink offerings and brought up sacrifices to them. Should I not be angry about these things?

7 Your bed is on a high, lofty mountain, and there you carried up your sacrifices.

8 You placed your memorials behind your doorposts. Did you think you would gain something by leaving me? You loved those who slept with you.

9 You multiplied your prostitution with them, increased the number of those far from you, sent ambassadors beyond your borders, and degraded yourself as far as Hades.

10 You exhausted yourself with your many paths, yet you did not say, ‘I will stop strengthening myself.’ Because you did these things, you did not plead with me.

11 Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied against me, did not remember or consider me, and paid me no attention? Even when I see you and pass you by, you do not revere me.

12 I will announce my righteousness and your evil deeds, which will not help you.

13 When you cry out in affliction, let them rescue you. Wind will take all of them, and a storm will carry them away. But those who cling to me will possess the land and inherit my holy mountain.

14 They will say, ‘Clear the roads before him, and remove the obstacles from my people’s path.’

15 This is what the Lord, the Most High, says—the one who lives on high forever, whose name is holy among the holy ones—the Most High who rests among the holy ones, gives patience to the fainthearted, and gives life to the brokenhearted:

16 I will not take vengeance on you forever or always be angry with you, because a spirit will go out from me, and I created every breath.

17 Because of sin, I grieved him briefly, struck him, and turned my face away. He was grieved and continued sorrowfully on his paths.

18 I saw his paths, healed him, comforted him, and gave him true comfort.

19 Peace upon peace to those far away and those nearby. The Lord said, ‘I will heal them.’

20 But the unrighteous will be tossed like troubled waves and will not be able to rest.

21 There is no joy for the ungodly, said the Lord God.