Isaiah 57-59

New American Standard Bible

57 The righteous person perishes, and no one ^(A)takes it to heart;
And devout people are taken away, while no one understands.
For the righteous person is taken away from ^(B)evil,
² He enters into peace;
They rest in their ^[a]beds,
Each one who ^(C)walked in his upright way.
³ “But come here, you sons of a ^(D)sorceress,
^(E)Offspring of an adulterer and ^[b]a ^(F)prostitute!
⁴ Of whom do you make fun?
Against whom do you open wide your mouth
And stick out your tongue?
Are you not children of ^(G)rebellion,
Offspring of deceit,
⁵ Who inflame yourselves among the ^(H)oaks,
^(I)Under every luxuriant tree,
Who ^(J)slaughter the children in the ^[c]ravines,
Under the clefts of the rocks?
⁶ Among the ^[d](K)smooth stones of the ^[e]ravine
Is your portion, ^[f]they are your lot;
Even to them you have ^(L)poured out a drink offering,
You have made a grain offering.
Should I ^[g](M)relent of these things?
⁷ On a ^(N)high and lofty mountain
You have ^(O)made your bed.
You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
⁸ Behind the door and the doorpost
You have set up your sign;
Indeed, far removed from Me, you have ^(P)uncovered yourself,
And have gone up and made your bed wide.
And you have made an agreement for yourself with them,
You have loved their bed,
You have looked at their ^[h]manhood.
⁹ You have journeyed to the king with oil
And increased your perfumes;
You have ^(Q)sent your messengers a great distance
And made them go down to ^[i]Sheol.
¹⁰ You were tired out by the length of your road,
Yet you did not say, ‘^(R)It is hopeless!’
You found ^[j]renewed strength,
Therefore you did not ^[k]faint.

58 “^(AV)Cry loudly, do not hold back;
Raise your voice like a trumpet,
And declare to My people their ^(AW)wrongdoing,
And to the house of Jacob their sins.
² Yet they ^(AX)seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways,
As a nation that has done ^(AY)righteousness
And ^(AZ)has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.
They ask Me for just decisions,
They delight ^(BA)in the nearness of God.
³ ‘Why have we ^(BB)fasted and You do not see?
Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not ^[o]notice?’
Behold, on the ^(BC)day of your fast you find your desire,
And oppress all your workers.
⁴ Behold, you fast for contention and ^(BD)strife, and to strike with a wicked fist.
You do not fast like you have done today to ^(BE)make your voice heard on high!
⁵ Is it a fast like this that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it for bowing ^[p]one’s head like a reed
And for spreading out ^(BF)sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
Will you call this a fast, even an ^(BG)acceptable day to the Lord?
⁶ Is this not the fast that I choose:
To ^(BH)release the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the ropes of the yoke,
And to ^(BI)let the oppressed go free,
And ^(BJ)break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to ^(BK)break your bread ^[q]with the hungry
And ^(BL)bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the ^(BM)naked, to cover him;
And not to ^(BN)hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸ Then your ^(BO)light will break out like the dawn,
And your ^(BP)recovery will spring up quickly;
And your ^(BQ)righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the ^(BR)Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will ^(BS)call, and the Lord will answer;
You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you ^(BT)remove the yoke from your midst,
The ^[r](BU)pointing of the finger and ^(BV)speaking wickedness,
¹⁰ And if you ^(BW)offer yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the ^[s]need of the afflicted,
Then your ^(BX)light will rise in darkness,
And your gloom will become like midday.
¹¹ And the ^(BY)Lord will continually guide you,
And ^(BZ)satisfy your ^[t]desire in scorched places,
And ^(CA)give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a ^(CB)watered garden,
And like a ^(CC)spring of water whose waters do not ^[u]fail.
¹² Those from among you will ^(CD)rebuild the ancient ruins;
You will ^(CE)raise up the age-old foundations;
And you will be called the repairer of the ^(CF)breach,
The restorer of the ^[v]streets in which to dwell.

¹³ “If, because of the Sabbath, you ^(CG)restrain your foot
From doing as you wish on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a ^(CH)pleasure, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your ^(CI)own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And ^(CJ)speaking your own word,
¹⁴ Then you will take ^(CK)delight in the Lord,
And I will make you ride ^(CL)on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
For the ^(CM)mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

59 Behold, ^(CN)the Lord’s hand is not so short
That it cannot save;
^(CO)Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear.
² But your ^(CP)wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His ^[w]face from you so that He does ^(CQ)not hear.
³ For your ^(CR)hands are defiled with blood,
And your fingers with wrongdoing;
Your lips have spoken ^(CS)deceit,
Your tongue mutters wickedness.
^4 (CT)No one sues righteously and ^(CU)no one pleads ^[x]honestly.
They ^(CV)trust in confusion and speak lies;
They ^(CW)conceive trouble and give birth to disaster.
⁵ They hatch vipers’ eggs and ^(CX)weave the spider’s web;
The one who eats of their eggs dies,
And from what is crushed, a snake breaks out.
⁶ Their webs will not become clothing,
Nor will they ^(CY)cover themselves with their works;
Their ^(CZ)works are works of wrongdoing,
And an ^(DA)act of violence is in their ^[y]hands.
^7 (DB)Their feet run to evil,
And they hurry to shed innocent blood;
^(DC)Their thoughts are thoughts of wrongdoing,
Devastation and destruction are in their paths.
⁸ They do not know the ^(DD)way of peace,
And there is ^(DE)no justice in their tracks;
They have made their paths crooked,
^(DF)Whoever walks on ^[z]them does not know peace.

⁹ Therefore ^(DG)justice is far from us,
And righteousness does not reach us;
We ^(DH)hope for light, but there is darkness,
For brightness, but we walk in gloom.
¹⁰ We ^(DI)grope for the wall like people who are blind,
We grope like those who have no eyes.
We ^(DJ)stumble at midday as in the twilight;
Among those who are healthy we are ^(DK)like the dead.
¹¹ All of us growl like bears,
And ^(DL)moan sadly like doves;
We hope for ^(DM)justice, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far from us.
¹² For our ^(DN)wrongful acts have multiplied before You,
And our ^(DO)sins have testified against us;
For our wrongful acts are with us,
And ^[aa]we know our wrongdoings:
^13 [ab]Offending and ^(DP)denying the Lord,
And turning away from our God,
Speaking ^(DQ)oppression and revolt,
Conceiving and ^(DR)uttering lying words from the heart.
^14 (DS)Justice is turned back,
And ^(DT)righteousness stands far away;
For truth has stumbled in the street,
And uprightness cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is lacking,
And one who turns aside from evil ^(DU)makes himself a prey.
Now the Lord saw,
And it was ^[ac]displeasing in His sight ^(DV)that there was no justice.
¹⁶ And He saw that there was ^(DW)no one,
And was amazed that there was not one to intercede;
Then His ^(DX)own arm brought salvation to Him,
And His righteousness upheld Him.
¹⁷ He put on ^(DY)righteousness like a breastplate,
And a ^(DZ)helmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on ^(EA)garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with ^(EB)zeal as a cloak.
^18 (EC)According to their deeds, ^[ad]so will He repay:
Wrath to His adversaries, ^[ae]retribution to His enemies;
To the coastlands He will ^[af]deal ^[ag]retribution.
¹⁹ So they will fear the name of the Lord from the ^(ED)west
And His glory from the ^(EE)rising of the sun,
For He will ^(EF)come like a ^[ah]rushing stream
Which the wind of the Lord drives.
²⁰ “A ^(EG)Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those in Jacob who ^(EH)turn from wrongdoing,” declares the Lord.