What does Isaias Chapter 57 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Unnoticed loss of the just precedes requests for peace and rest. Idolatry and forgotten allegiance are rebuked in particular images. The eternal Holy One declares revival with the humble and contrite.

Chapter breakdown

Isaias 57 laments the just perishing unnoticed and merciful men taken away without understanding, removed before evil. It asks peace and rest for the upright, without claiming an observed afterlife or a universal purpose for premature deaths. Sorceress offspring and adulterer and harlot seed are summoned, with questions against mocking mouth and tongue. Idols under green trees and child sacrifices in torrents beneath high rocks are condemned.

Torrent portion, libations and victims provoke an anger question. A mountain bed and victims, remembrance behind doors and posts, adulterer, enlarged bed and covenant describe unfaithfulness. Ointment and perfumes adorn for a king; distant messengers and debasement to hell follow. The king's foreign identity, stone carvings, dry ravine or diplomatic treaty terms are not specified. Weariness without choosing rest, life of the hand and failure to ask lead to questions about fear, lies and forgetting during divine silence.

Works do not profit and companies cannot save against wind, while trust inherits land and holy mount. A way is cleared of stumblingblocks. The High and Eminent inhabits eternity and the holy place as well as the humble, contrite spirit to revive it. He does not contend forever because spirit goes forth and breathings are made. Covetousness brought anger and striking, followed by wandering; seeing ways leads to healing, return and comfort for mourners. Fruit of lips announces peace near and far. The wicked are compared with restless, mire-casting sea. Seeing grief, sorrow causing wandering and an all-sinners clinical agitation rule are not supplied.

The story inside

Opening: Unnoticed loss of the just precedes requests for peace and rest. Development: Idolatry and forgotten allegiance are rebuked in particular images. Conclusion: The eternal Holy One declares revival with the humble and contrite.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Unnoticed loss of the just precedes requests for peace and rest.
2
Idolatry and forgotten allegiance are rebuked in particular images.
3
The eternal Holy One declares revival with the humble and contrite.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 83179–83184
57:1. The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and men of mercy are taken away, because there is none that understandeth; for the just man is taken away from before the face of evil. 57:2. Let peace come, let him rest in his bed that hath walked in his uprightness.
Lines 83186–83198
57:3. But draw near hither, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer, and of the harlot. 57:4. Upon whom have you jested? upon whom have you opened your mouth wide, and put out your tongue? are not you wicked children, a false seed, 57:5. Who seek your comfort in idols under every green tree, sacrificing children in the torrents, under the high rocks? 57:6. In the parts of the torrent is thy portion, this is thy lot: and thou hast poured out libations to them, thou hast offered sacrifice. Shall I not be angry at these things?
Lines 83222–83225
57:13. When thou shalt cry, let thy companies deliver thee, but the wind shall carry them all off, a breeze shall take them away, but he that putteth his trust in me, shall inherit the land, and shall possess my holy mount.
Lines 83230–83233
57:15. For thus saith the High and the Eminent that inhabiteth eternity: and his name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, and with a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Lines 83246–83252
57:19. I created the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, said the Lord, and I healed him. 57:20. But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest, and the waves thereof cast up dirt and mire. 57:21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God.