Isaiah 57 - 58 — Legacy Standard Bible

Evil Leaders Rebuked

57The righteous man perishes, and no man ^aputs it upon his heart;And men of lovingkindness are gathered away, while no one understands.For the righteous man is gathered away from ^bevil,²He enters into peace;They rest in their ¹beds,Each one who ^awalked in his upright way.³“But draw near, you sons of a ^asoothsayer,^bSeed of an adulterer and ¹a ^cprostitute.⁴“Against whom do you jest?Against whom do you open wide your mouthAnd stick out your tongue?Are you not children of ^atransgression,Seed of lying,⁵Who inflame yourselves among the ¹^,^aoaks,^bUnder every green tree,Who ^cslaughter the children in the ²ravines,Under the clefts of the cliffs?⁶“Among the ¹^,^asmooth stones of the ²ravineIs your portion, ³they are your lot;Even to them you have ^bpoured out a drink offering;You have made a grain offering.Shall I ⁴^,^crelent concerning these things?⁷“Upon a mountain ^alofty and lifted upYou have ^bmade your bed.You also went up there to offer sacrifice.⁸“Behind the door and the doorpostYou have set up your memorial;Indeed, far removed from Me, you have ^auncovered yourself,And have gone up and made your bed wide,And you have cut a covenant for yourself with them;You have loved their ¹bed;You have looked on their ²manhood.⁹“You have journeyed to the king with oilAnd increased your perfumes;You have ^asent your envoys a great distanceAnd made them go down to Sheol.¹⁰“You were tired out by the length of your road,Yet you did not say, ‘^aIt is hopeless.’You found ¹renewed strength;Therefore you did not ²faint.¹¹“Of ^awhom were you anxious and fearfulWhen you lied and did ^bnot remember Me,Nor even ^cput Me upon your heart?Was I not silent even for a long timeSo you do not fear Me?¹²“I will ^adeclare your righteousness and your ^bdeeds,But they will not profit you.¹³“When you cry out, ^alet your collection of idols deliver you.But the wind will lift all of them up,And a breath will take them away.But he who ^btakes refuge in Me will ^cinherit the landAnd will ^dpossess My holy mountain.”

Yahweh Revives the Spirit of the Lowly

¹⁴And it will be said,“^aBuild up, build up, prepare the way,¹Remove every stumbling block out of the way of My people.”¹⁵For thus says the One ^ahigh and lifted upWho ^bdwells forever, whose name is Holy,“I ^cdwell on a high and holy place,And also with the ^dcrushed and lowly of spiritIn order to ^erevive the spirit of the lowlyAnd to revive the heart of the crushed.¹⁶“For I will ^anot contend forever,^bNor will I always be angry;For the spirit would grow faint before Me,And the ^cbreath of those whom I have made.¹⁷“Because of the iniquity of his ^agreedy gain I was angry and struck him;I hid My face and was angry,And he went on ^bturning away, in the way of his heart.¹⁸“I have seen his ways, but I will ^aheal him;I will ^blead him and ^cpay him and his mourners in full with comfort,¹⁹Creating the ¹^,^apraise of the lips.^bPeace, peace to him who is ^cfar and to him who is near,”Says Yahweh, “and I will heal him.”²⁰But the ^awicked are like the tossing sea,For it cannot be quiet,And its waters toss up refuse and mud.²¹“^aThere is no peace,” says ^bmy God, “for the wicked.”

Fasting as Yahweh Chooses

58“^aCall out from your throat, do not hold back;Raise your voice like a trumpet,And declare to My people their ^btransgressionAnd to the house of Jacob their sins.²“Yet they ^aseek Me day by day and find pleasure in knowing My ways,As a nation that has done ^brighteousnessAnd ^chas not forsaken the judgment of their God.They ask Me for righteous judgments;They find pleasure in ^dthe nearness of God.³‘Why have we ^afasted and You do not see?Why have we afflicted our souls and You do not know?’Behold, on the ^bday of your fast you find your desire,And oppress all your workers.⁴“Behold, you fast for contention and ^aquarreling and to strike with a wicked fist.You do not fast like you do today to ^bmake your voice heard on high.⁵“Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to afflict himself?Is it for bowing ¹one’s head like a reedAnd for spreading out ^asackcloth and ashes as a bed?Will you call this a fast, even an ^bacceptable day to Yahweh?⁶“Is this not the fast which I choose,To ^aloosen the bonds of wickedness,To release the bands of ¹the yoke,And to ^blet the oppressed go freeAnd ^cbreak every ²yoke?⁷“Is it not to ^adivide your bread ¹with the hungryAnd ^bbring the afflicted homeless into the house;When you see the ^cnaked, you cover him;And not to ^dhide yourself from your own flesh?⁸“Then your ^alight will break out like the dawn,And your ^brecovery will speedily spring forth;And your ^crighteousness will go before you;The glory of ^dYahweh will be your rear guard.⁹“Then you will ^acall, and Yahweh will answer;You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’If you ^bremove the ¹yoke from your midst,The ²^,^cpointing of the finger and ^dspeaking wickedness,¹⁰And if you ¹^,^aoffer your soul to the hungryAnd satisfy the soul of the afflicted,Then your ^blight will rise in darknessAnd your thick darkness will become like midday.¹¹“And ^aYahweh will continually guide you,And ^bsatisfy your soul in scorched places,And ^cfortify your bones;And you will be like a ^dwatered garden,And like a ^espring of water whose waters do not ¹fail.¹²“Those from among you will ^arebuild the ancient waste places;You will ^braise up the foundations of past generation upon generation;And you will be called the repairer of the ^cbreach,The restorer of the paths for one to inhabit.

Keeping the Sabbath

¹³“If because of the sabbath, you ^aturn your footFrom doing your own desire on My holy day,And call the sabbath a ^bdelight, the holy day of Yahweh honorable,And honor it, by not doing your ^cown ways,By not finding your own desireAnd ^dspeaking your own word,¹⁴Then you will take ^adelight in Yahweh,And I will make you ride ^bon the heights of the earth;And I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father,For the ^cmouth of Yahweh has spoken.”