BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 57

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Isaiah 57 Overview

The righteous may die unnoticed while idolatrous Judah pursues spiritual adultery, but the high and holy God dwells with the contrite, revives the humble, heals the penitent, and withholds peace from the persistently wicked.

IsaiahBook

57Chapter

21Verses

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Before you read Isaiah 57

Coming from

Isaiah calls for justice in light of coming salvation, welcomes faithful foreigners and eunuchs into God’s house of prayer, then sharply condemns Israel’s blind watchmen and self-indulgent shepherds.

In this chapter

Leads into

The people complain that God ignores their fasting, but Isaiah exposes exploitation and strife beneath religious performance; true fasting loosens oppression, feeds the hungry, shelters the poor, and restores communal life.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter contrasts unnoticed righteous death with shameless idolatry and then with God’s restorative nearness to the contrite.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 57 is the chapter’s own movement: a righteous death can be mercy rather than defeat. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

A righteous death can be mercy rather than defeat

The righteous is taken away from coming evil and enters peace.

Idolatry is covenant unfaithfulness

Isaiah uses adultery and prostitution imagery to expose Judah’s pursuit of other gods.

God’s transcendence does not make Him distant from the humble

The One who inhabits eternity also dwells with the contrite and lowly.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Psalm 34:18

The LORD being near to the brokenhearted parallels Isaiah’s dwelling with the contrite.

Matthew 5:3-4

Jesus blesses the poor in spirit and mourners, consistent with Isaiah’s emphasis on humble dependence.

Isaiah 48:22

The warning that there is no peace for the wicked repeats here to close another major section.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not assume early death always signals divine punishment.

This chapter explicitly gives the opposite possibility for the righteous.

Do not apply 'peace, peace' indiscriminately.

God creates the fruit of lips and heals the contrite, while the wicked remain like a troubled sea.

Read Isaiah 57 watching for…

the unnoticed death of the righteous

idolatry described as adultery

the high and holy One with the contrite

healing and peace

the restless sea of the wicked

Chapter outline4 sections

1-2The righteous die and enter peace while no one lays it to heart 3-12Idolatrous rebellion is exposed and its false refuges will fail 13-16Those who trust the LORD inherit the land, and the high God revives the humble 17-21Persistent backsliding brings wrath, but God offers healing and peace to the contrite

The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.

Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,

Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?

Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?

Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.

Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.

And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell.

Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.

And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?

I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.

When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;

And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.

For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.

I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.

I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

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

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Isaiah 57:17

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