57 The righteous one himself has perished, but there is no one taking [it] to heart. And men of loving-kindness are being gathered [to the dead], while no one discerns that it is because of the calamity that the righteous one has been gathered away. 2 He enters into peace; they take rest upon their beds, [each] one that is walking straightforwardly.

3 “As for YOU men, come up close here, YOU sons of a soothsaying woman, the seed of an adulterous person and of a woman that commits prostitution: 4 Over whom is it that YOU have a jolly good time? Against whom do YOU keep opening wide the mouth, keep sticking out the tongue? Are YOU not the children of transgression, the seed of falsehood, 5 those who are working up passion among big trees, under every luxuriant tree, slaughtering the children in the torrent valleys under the clefts of the crags?

6 “With the smooth stones of the torrent valley was your portion. They—they were your lot. Moreover, to them you poured out a drink offering, you offered up a gift. For these things shall I comfort myself? 7 Upon a mountain high and lifted up you set your bed. There also you went up to offer sacrifice. 8 And behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial. For apart from me you uncovered [yourself] and proceeded to go up; you made your bed spacious. And for yourself you went concluding a covenant with them. You loved a bed with them. The male organ you beheld. 9 And you proceeded to descend toward Melech with oil, and kept making your ointments abundant. And you continued sending your envoys far off, so that you lowered matters to Sheol. 10 In the multitude of your ways you have toiled. You have not said, ‘It is hopeless!’ You have found a revival of your own power. That is why you have not grown sick.

11 “Whom did you become frightened at and begin to fear, so that you took up lying? But I was not the one that you remembered. You took nothing to your heart. Was I not keeping silent and hiding matters? So you were in no fear even of me. 12 I myself shall tell forth your righteousness and your works, that they will not benefit you. 13 When you cry for aid your collection of things will not deliver you, but a wind will carry even all of them away. An exhalation will take them away, but the one taking refuge in me will inherit the land and will take possession of my holy mountain. 14 And one will certainly say, ‘Bank up, YOU people, bank up! Clear the way. Remove any obstacle from the way of my people.’”

15 For this is what the High and Lofty One, who is residing forever and whose name is holy, has said: “In the height and in the holy place is where I reside, also with the one crushed and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly ones and to revive the heart of the ones being crushed. 16 For it will not be to time indefinite that I shall contend, nor perpetually that I shall be indignant; for because of me the spirit itself would grow feeble, even the breathing creatures that I myself have made.

17 “At the erroneousness of his unjust gain I grew indignant, and I proceeded to strike him, concealing [my face], while I was indignant. But he kept walking as a renegade in the way of his heart. 18 I have seen his very ways; and I began to heal him and conduct him and make compensation with comfort to him and to his mourning ones.”

19 “I am creating the fruit of the lips. Continuous peace there will be to the one that is far away and to the one that is near,” Jehovah has said, “and I will heal him.”

20 “But the wicked are like the sea that is being tossed, when it is unable to calm down, the waters of which keep tossing up seaweed and mire. 21 There is no peace,” my God has said, “for the wicked ones.”


58 “Call out full-throated; do not hold back. Raise your voice just like a horn, and tell my people their revolt, and the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet day after day it was I whom they kept seeking, and it was in the knowledge of my ways that they would express delight, like a nation that carried on righteousness itself and that had not left the very justice of their God, in that they kept asking me for righteous judgments, drawing near to God in whom they had delight,

3 “‘For what reason did we fast and you did not see, and did we afflict our soul and you would take no note?’

“Indeed YOU people were finding delight in the very day of YOUR fasting, when there were all YOUR toilers that YOU kept driving to work. 4 Indeed for quarreling and struggle YOU would fast, and for striking with the fist of wickedness. Did YOU not keep fasting as in the day for making YOUR voice to be heard in the height? 5 Should the fast that I choose become like this, as a day for earthling man to afflict his soul? For bowing down his head just like a rush, and that he should spread out mere sackcloth and ashes as his couch? Is it this that you call a fast and a day acceptable to Jehovah?

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose? To loosen the fetters of wickedness, to release the bands of the yoke bar, and to send away the crushed ones free, and that YOU people should tear in two every yoke bar? 7 Is it not the dividing of your bread out to the hungry one, and that you should bring the afflicted, homeless people into [your] house? That, in case you should see someone naked, you must cover him, and that you should not hide yourself from your own flesh?

8 “In that case your light would break forth just like the dawn; and speedily would recuperation spring up for you. And before you your righteousness would certainly walk; the very glory of Jehovah would be your rear guard. 9 In that case you would call, and Jehovah himself would answer; you would cry for help, and he would say, ‘Here I am!’

“If you will remove from your midst the yoke bar, the poking out of the finger and the speaking of what is hurtful; 10 and you will grant to the hungry one your own soul[ful desire], and you will satisfy the soul that is being afflicted, your light also will certainly flash up even in the darkness, and your gloom will be like midday. 11 And Jehovah will be bound to lead you constantly and to satisfy your soul even in a scorched land, and he will invigorate your very bones; and you must become like a well-watered garden, and like the source of water, the waters of which do not lie. 12 And at your instance men will certainly build up the places devastated a long time; you will raise up even the foundations of continuous generations. And you will actually be called the repairer of [the] gap, the restorer of roadways by which to dwell.

13 “If in view of the sabbath you will turn back your foot as regards doing your own delights on my holy day, and will actually call the sabbath an exquisite delight, a holy [day] of Jehovah, one being glorified, and will actually glorify it rather than doing your own ways, rather than finding what delights you and speaking a word; 14 you will in that case find your exquisite delight in Jehovah, and I will make you ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will cause you to eat from the hereditary possession of Jacob your forefather, for the mouth of Jehovah itself has spoken [it].”

59 Look! The hand of Jehovah has not become too short that it cannot save, nor has his ear become too heavy that it cannot hear. 2 No, but the very errors of YOU people have become the things causing division between YOU and YOUR God, and YOUR own sins have caused the concealing of [his] face from YOU to keep from hearing. 3 For YOUR own palms have become polluted with blood, and YOUR fingers with error. YOUR own lips have spoken falsehood. YOUR own tongue kept muttering sheer unrighteousness. 4 There is no one calling out in righteousness, and no one at all has gone to court in faithfulness. There has been a trusting in unreality, and a speaking of worthlessness. There has been a conceiving of trouble, and a bringing of what is hurtful to birth.

5 The eggs of a poisonous snake are what they have hatched, and they kept weaving the mere cobweb of a spider. Anyone eating some of their eggs would die, and the [egg] that was smashed would be hatched into a viper. 6 Their mere cobweb will not serve as a garment, nor will they cover themselves with their works. Their works are hurtful works, and the activity of violence is in their palms. 7 Their own feet keep running to sheer badness, and they are in a hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are hurtful thoughts; despoiling and breakdown are in their highways. 8 The way of peace they have ignored, and there is no justice in their tracks. Their roadways they have made crooked for themselves. No one at all treading in them will actually know peace.

9 That is why justice has come to be far away from us, and righteousness does not catch up with us. We keep hoping for light, but, look! darkness; for brightness, [but] in continuous gloom we kept walking. 10 We keep groping for the wall just like blind men, and like those without eyes we keep groping. We have stumbled at high noon just as in evening darkness; among the stout ones [we are] just like dead people. 11 We keep groaning, all of us, just like bears; and like doves we mournfully keep cooing. We kept hoping for justice, but there was none; for salvation, [but] it has stayed far away from us. 12 For our revolts have become many in front of you; and as for our sins, each one has testified against us. For our revolts are with us; and as for our errors, we well know them. 13 There have been transgressing and a denying of Jehovah; and there was a moving back from our God, a speaking of oppression and revolt, a conceiving and a muttering of words of falsehood from the very heart. 14 And justice was forced to move back, and righteousness itself kept standing simply far off. For truth has stumbled even in the public square, and what is straightforward is unable to enter. 15 And the truth proves to be missing, and anyone turning away from badness is being despoiled.

And Jehovah got to see, and it was bad in his eyes that there was no justice. 16 And when he saw that there was no man, he began to show himself astonished that there was no one interposing. And his arm proceeded to save for him, and his own righteousness was the thing that supported him. 17 Then he put on righteousness as a coat of mail, and the helmet of salvation upon his head. Furthermore, he put on the garments of vengeance as raiment and enwrapped himself with zeal as if a sleeveless coat. 18 In accordance with the dealings he will reward correspondingly, rage to his adversaries, due treatment to his enemies. To the islands he will recompense due treatment. 19 And from the sunset they will begin to fear the name of Jehovah, and from the rising of the sun the glory of him, for he will come in like a distressing river, which the very spirit of Jehovah has driven along.

20 “And to Zion the Repurchaser will certainly come, and to those turning from transgression in Jacob,” is the utterance of Jehovah.
      21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” Jehovah has said.

“My spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth—they will not be removed from your mouth or from the mouth of your offspring or from the mouth of the offspring of your offspring,” Jehovah has said, “from now on even to time indefinite.”