Isaiah 57
57
Never Tired of Trying New Religions
1-2Meanwhile, right-living people die
and no one gives them a thought.
God-fearing people are carted off
and no one even notices.
The right-living people are out of their misery,
they’re finally at rest.
They lived well and with dignity
and now they’re finally at peace.
* * *
3-10“But you, children of a witch, come here!
Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore.
What business do you have taunting,
sneering, and sticking out your tongue?
Do you have any idea what wretches you’ve turned out to be?
A race of rebels, a generation of liars.
You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade
and fornicate at whim.
You kill your children at any convenient spot—
any cave or crevasse will do.
You take stones from the creek
and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.
You’ve chosen your fate.
Your worship will be your doom.
You’ve climbed a high mountain
to practice your foul sex-and-death religion.
Behind closed doors
you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.
Deserting me, you’ve gone all out, stripped down
and made your bed your place of worship.
You’ve climbed into bed with the ‘sacred’ whores
and loved every minute of it,
adoring every curve of their naked bodies.
You anoint your king-god with ointments
and lavish perfumes on yourselves.
You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,
send them all the way to hell and back.
You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,
and never see what a waste it all is.
You’ve always found strength for the latest fad,
never got tired of trying new religions.
11-13“Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense,
leaving me high and dry,
forgetting you ever knew me?
Because I don’t yell and make a scene,
do you think I don’t exist?
I’ll go over, detail by detail, all your ‘righteous’ attempts at religion,
and expose the absurdity of it all.
Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods:
A good wind will blow them away.
They’re smoke, nothing but smoke.
“But anyone who runs to me for help
will inherit the land,
will end up owning my holy mountain!”
* * *
14Someone says: “Build, build! Make a road!
Clear the way, remove the rocks
from the road my people will travel.”
15-21A Message from the high and towering God,
who lives in Eternity,
whose name is Holy:
“I live in the high and holy places,
but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,
And what I do is put new spirit in them,
get them up and on their feet again.
For I’m not going to haul people into court endlessly,
I’m not going to be angry forever.
Otherwise, people would lose heart.
These souls I created would tire out and give up.
I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel’s sins.
I struck him hard and turned away in anger,
while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways.
When I looked again and saw what he was doing,
I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him,
creating a new language of praise for the mourners.
Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand,” says God—
“and yes, I will heal them.
But the wicked are storm-battered seas
that can’t quiet down.
The waves stir up garbage and mud.
There’s no peace,” God says, “for the wicked.”
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Isaiah 57: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 57
57
1The righteous perish,
and no one lays it to heart.
Merciful men are taken away,
and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil.
2He enters into peace.
They rest in their beds,
each one who walks in his uprightness.
3“But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress,
you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes.
4Whom do you mock?
Against whom do you make a wide mouth
and stick out your tongue?
Aren’t you children of disobedience
and offspring of falsehood,
5you who inflame yourselves among the oaks,
under every green tree;
who kill the children in the valleys,
under the clefts of the rocks?
6Among 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?
7On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed.
You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
8You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts,
for you have exposed yourself to someone besides me,
and have gone up.
You have enlarged your bed
and made you a covenant with them.
You loved what you saw on their bed.
9You went to the king with oil,
increased your perfumes,
sent your ambassadors far off,
and degraded yourself even to Sheol.#57:9 Sheol is the place of the dead.
10You were wearied with the length of your ways;
yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’
You found a reviving of your strength;
therefore you weren’t faint.
11“Whom have you dreaded and feared,
so that you lie,
and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart?
Haven’t I held my peace for a long time,
and you don’t fear me?
12I will declare your righteousness;
and as for your works, they will not benefit you.
13When you cry,
let those whom you have gathered deliver you,
but the wind will take them.
A breath will carry them all away,
but he who takes refuge in me will possess the land,
and will inherit my holy mountain.”
14He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way!
Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”
15For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity,
whose name is Holy, says:
“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.
16For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry;
for the spirit would faint before me,
and the souls whom I have made.
17I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him.
I hid myself and was angry;
and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.
18I have seen his ways, and will heal him.
I will lead him also,
and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.
19I 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.”
20But the wicked are like the troubled sea;
for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud.
21“There is no peace”, says my God,
“for the wicked.”
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