Chapter 57 – Chapter 59

Chapter 57

CHAPTER 57

1 The righteous man hath perished, And there is no man that layeth it to heart: Men of mercy are gathered, And there is none that considereth, That the righteous man is gathered from the face of the evil.

2 Peace shall come; They shall rest in their beds, Whosoever walketh before him.

3 And draw near, ye sons of the sorceress; The seed of the adulterer And the whore.

4 On whom have ye made sport? On whom have ye opened the mouth? On whom have ye stretched out the tongue? Are ye not rebellious children? A lying seed?

5 Warming themselves among the oaks under every green tree; Sacrificing children in the valleys, Under the cliffs of the rocks,

Note 249. Or, With the gods.

6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is thy portion; They, they are thy lot; Even to them hast thou poured out a drink-offering, And offered a sacrifice. Shall I take pleasure in these things?

Note 250. Or, In parts of the river.

Note 251. Or, Shall I repent of these things?

7 On a lofty And high mountain hast thou set thy bed; Yea, thou art gone up to it to offer a sacrifice.

8 Behind the door And behind the door-post Hast thou set thy memorial; Thou hast been discovered to another than me; Thou art gone up; Thou hast enlarged thy bed; Thou hast made a covenant with them; Thou lovedst their bed in the place which thou sawest.

9 And thou wentest to the king with ointment; Thou multipliedst thy disguises; Thou sentest thy ambassadors to a distant place; Thou art humbled even to hell.

10 Thou art wearied with thy manifold journeying; And hast not said, There is no hope: Thou hast found the life of thine hand; Therefore thou hast not grieved.

11 And whom hast thou worshipped, And of whom hast thou been afraid, That thou hast dealt falsely, And hast not remembered me, Blot laid it on thy heart? Is it not because I have held my peace, And therefore thou never fearest me?

12 I will declare thy righteousness, And thy deeds; And they shall not profit thee.

13 When thou shalt cry, let thy troops deliver thee; Yet the wind shall carry them all away; Vanity shall seize them. But he who hopeth in me shall obtain the land by inheritance, And shall possess the mountain of my holiness.

14 And he shall say, Prepare, prepare; Level the road; Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.

15 For thus hath spoken the high And Lofty One, Who dwelleth in eternity, Whose name is Holy; I inhabit the high And holy, And with the afflicted, And with him who is lowly in spirit; That I may revive the spirit of the lowly, That I may revive the heart of the afflicted.

16 For I will not contend for ever, Nor will I be always wroth; For the spirit shall be clothed before me, And the wind have I made.

Note 252. Or, Shall be concealed, or, Shall fail.

17 For the iniquity of his lust I was wroth, And smote him; I have concealed myself, And will be wroth; But he turned And departed in the way of his heart.

18 I have seen his ways, And will heal him, And will lead him, restoring consolations To him And to his mourners.

19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to them that are afar off, And to them that are near, saith Jehovah, And I heal him.

20 But the wicked are as the troubled sea, Which cannot rest; And its waters will east out filth And mud.

21 There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God.

Chapter 58

CHAPTER 58

1 Cry with the throat, spare not; Raise thy voice as with a trumpet; And proclaim to my people their sin, And to the house of Jacob their iniquity.

2 Yet they seek me daily, And wish to know my ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And neglected not the judgment of her God; They inquire at me about the judgments of righteousness: They wish to approach to God.

3 Wherefore have we fasted, And thou didst not take notice of it? Wherefore have we humbled our souls, And thou knewest not? Behold! on the day that ye fast, ye find pleasure, And exact all your demands.

4 Behold! for strife And contention ye fast, And that ye may smite with the wicked fist. Fast not, as ye do this day, That ye may cause your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is it such a fast as I have chosen? That a man may afflict his soul for a day, And may hang down his head as a bulrush, And may spread sackcloth And ashes? Wilt thou call this a fast, And a day acceptable to Jehovah?

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose wicked bonds, To undo heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that ye may burst asunder every yoke?

7 Is it not that thou shalt break thy bread to the hungry, And shalt bring the wandering poor to thy house? If thou shalt see the naked, that thou shalt cover him; And that thou shalt not hide thyself from thine own flesh?

8 Then shall break forth as the dawn thy light; And thy health shall quickly spring up; Righteousness shall go before thy face, And the glory of Jehovah shall gather thee.

9 Then shalt thou call, And Jehovah will listen; Thou shalt cry, And he shall say, Behold! I am here. If thou shalt take away from the midst of thee the burden, And the pointing of the finger, And the speech of vanity;

Note 253. Or, The unprofitable speech.

10 If thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry man, And shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, Thy light shall arise in darkness, And thy obscurity as noon-day;

11 And Jehovah shall always conduct thee, And shall satisfy thy soul in drought, And shall make fit thy bones; And thou shalt be as a well-watered garden, And as a fountain of waters, Whose waters fail not.

12 And from thee shall be those who shall restore the deserts of the age; Thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation And generation; And thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths for inhabiting.

13 If thou shalt turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, And shalt not do thy pleasure on my holy day, And shalt call the Sabbath a delight, To consecrate it to Jehovah, because it is honorable, And shall give honor to it, So as not to follow thine own ways, Nor to find thine own pleasure, Nor to speak thine own words;

14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; And I will cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth, And will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

Chapter 59

CHAPTER 59

1 Behold! the hand of Jehovah is not shortened, That it cannot, save; Nor is his ear heavy, That it cannot hear.

2 But your sins have made a separation Between you And your God; And your sins have hidden his face from you, That he may not heal.

3 For your hands are polluted with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have uttered falsehood; Your tongue hath spoken wickedness.

4 There is none that crieth for justice, None that contendeth for truth; They trust in vain things, And talk icily; They conceive mischief, arid bring forth iniquity.

5 They hatch the eggs of the basilisk, And weave the webs of spiders; He that eateth of their eggs shall die; If they be crushed, there shall come forth a viper.

6 Their webs shall not become clothing, And they shall not cover themselves with their works; For their works are works of iniquity; And the work of violence is in their hands.

Note 254. Or, Of vanity. And the work of violence is in their hands.

7 Their bet run to evil, And hasten to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are vain thoughts; Wasting And destruction are in their paths.

Note 255. Or, Thoughts of iniquity.

8 The way of peace they know not; And there is no judgment in their steps: They have corrupted their paths; Whosoever walketh by them shall not know peace.

9 Therefore judgment hath departed far from us; And justice doth not overtake us. We looked for light, And, behold! obscurity; For brightness, And, behold! we walk amidst thick darkness.

10 We grope for the wall like the blind; We grope like those who have been deprived of sight; We stumble at noon-day as in the night; Ill solitary places like dead men.

11 We all roar like bears; And moaning, we moan like doves We looked for judgment, And it is not visible; For salvation, And it is far off from us.

12 For our iniquities are multiplied before thee; And our sins have testified against us; for our iniquities are with us, And we know our sins.

Note 256. Or, Our sins answer to us.

13 We have done wickedly, And have lied to Jehovah, And have turned back from our God; Speaking slander And revolt; Conceiving And uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

14 And judgment is driven back, And justice is far off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot come forth.

15 Yea, truth faileth; And he who hath withdrawn from evil hath become a prey. And Jehovah saw it; And it displeased his eyes, that there was no judgment.

16 He saw that there was no man, And wondered that none came forward; Therefore his arm brought salvation to him; And his righteousness, it upheld him.

Note 257. Or, Interceded.

Note 258. Or, Made.

17 And he put on righteousness as a coat of mail, And the helmet of salvation on his head; He put on vengeance as a robe, And was clothed with indignation as a cloak.

18 As if for the sake of recompenses, As if for rendering vengeance, For rendering indignation to his adversaries, Recompense to his enemies, He will render recompense to the islands.

19 Therefore they shall fear the name of Jehovah from the west, And his glory from the rising of the sun; For the enemy shall come as a river; And the Spirit of Jehovah shall drive him.

Note 259. Or, Shall chase him away.

20 And a Redeemer shall come to Zion, And to them who have returned from iniquity in Jacob, Saith Jehovah.

21 And this my covenant I make with them, saith Jehovah; My Spirit that is upon thee, And my words which I have put in thy mouth, Shall not depart out of thy mouth, Nor out of the mouth of thy seed, Nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed, saith Jehovah, From this time even for ever.