Chapter 57

¹ See how the just man has perished, and no one lays it to heart: and righteous men are taken away, and no one considers: for the righteous has been removed out of the way of injustice. ² His burial shall be in peace: he has been removed out of the way.

³ But draw ye near hither, ye lawless children, the seed of adulterers and the harlot. ⁴ Wherein have ye been rioting? and against whom have ye opened your mouth, and against whom have ye loosed your tongue? are ye not children of perdition? a lawless seed? ⁵ who call upon idols under the leafy trees, slaying ¹your children in the valleys among the rocks? ⁶ That is thy portion, this is thy lot: and to them hast thou poured forth drink-offerings, and to these hast thou offered meat-offerings. Shall I not therefore be angry for these things?

⁷ On a lofty and high mountain, there is thy bed, and thither thou carriedst up thy meat-offerings: ⁸ and behind the posts of thy door thou didst place thy memorials. Didst thou think that if thou shouldest depart from me, thou wouldest gain? thou hast loved those that lay with thee; ⁹ and thou hast multiplied thy whoredom with them, and thou hast increased the number of them that are far from thee, and hast sent ambassadors beyond thy borders, and hast been debased even to hell. ¹⁰ Thou hast wearied thyself with thy many ways; yet thou saidst not, I will cease to strengthen myself: for thou has done these things; therefore thou has not supplicated me.

¹¹ Through dread of whom hast thou feared, and lied against me, and has not remembered, nor ²considered me, nor regarded me, yea, though when I see thee I pass they by, yet thou hast not feared me.

¹² And I will declare thy righteousness, and thy sins, which shall not profit thee. ¹³ When thou criest out, let them deliver thee in thine affliction: for all these the wind shall take, and the tempest shall carry them away: but they that cleave to me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain. ¹⁴ And they shall say, ³Clear the ways before him, and take up the stumbling-blocks out of the way of my people.

¹⁵ Thus saith the Most High, who dwells on high for ever, ⁴Holy in the holies, is his name, the Most High resting in the holies, and giving patience to the faint-hearted, and giving life to the broken-hearted: ¹⁶ I will not take vengeance on you for ever, neither will I be always angry with you: for my Spirit shall go forth from me, and I have created all breath. ¹⁷ On account of sin for a little while I grieved him, and smote him, and turned away my face from him; and he was grieved, and he went on sorrowful in his ways. ¹⁸ I have seen his ways, and healed him, and comforted him, and given him true comfort; ¹⁹ peace upon peace to them that are far off, and to them that are nigh: and the Lord has said, I will heal them.

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²⁰ But the unrighteous shall be tossed as troubled waves, and shall not be able to rest. ²¹ There is no ⁵joy to the ungodly, said God.