Isaiah

¹ and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.

² enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.

³ you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!

⁴ At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars?

⁵ and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags.

⁶ they, they are your lot. Yes, to them you have poured out drink offerings and offered grain offerings. In the light of these things, should I relent?

⁷ there you went up to offer your sacrifices.

⁸ you have put your pagan symbols. Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide; you made a pact with those whose beds you love, and you looked on their nakedness.

⁹ and increased your perfumes. You sent your ambassadors far away; you descended to the grave itself!

¹⁰ but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint.

¹¹ that you have been false to me, and have neither remembered me nor pondered this in your hearts? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?

¹² and they will not benefit you.

¹³ let your collection of idols save you! The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away. But the man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.”

¹⁴ And it will be said: “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”

¹⁵ he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

¹⁶ nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me— the breath of man that I have created.

¹⁷ I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his willful ways.

¹⁸ I will guide him and restore comfort to him,

¹⁹ Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the Lord. “And I will heal them.”

²⁰ which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.

²¹ “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”