1 Righteous people perish,
and no one cares about it.
The just one is taken off, and no one understands that he is taken away from the calamity that comes,
2 he enters into peace.
3 But all you children of a witch, come here, you offspring of the whore and the adulterer.
4 Who are you mocking?
At whom are you making faces, opening wide your mouth and sticking out your tongue?
You are children of sin, offspring of deceit and falsehood,
5 burning with lust among the bushes,
under spreading branches,
sacrificing your children by the streams,
in the clefts of rocks.
6 Your heart is with your idols,
the smooth stones of the wadis to which you have poured out drink offerings
and brought oblations of grain.
Can I tolerate this?
7 You have made your bed upon a high and lofty mountain.
You went up there to offer your sacrifice.
8 You have set up your domestic idols
behind your doorposts and your doors.
Deserting me, you have uncovered your bed, climbed into it and spread it wide.
You made a bargain with those
whose bed you enjoy,
and you had intercourse with them.
9 With perfumed oil, you made yourself
look your best for Molech;
you sent envoys far afield –
the children you sent to your pagan god through a sacrificial death.
10 Although wearied with your misdeeds,
you have never given up;
you have never tired or weakened,
but instead found your strength re vived.
11 Where had gone your fear of me
that you should lie and disown me,
refuse me a place in your heart
and not remember me?
Have I held my peace so long
that you do not fear me any more?
12 But now I will tell your merits and your deeds, it will not be for your advantage.
13 When you cry out in distress, let your idols save you! The wind will blow them all away; a whiff of a breeze will carry them off.
But he who takes refuge in me will take possession of the land, my holy mountain his inheritance.
There is no peace without justice
14 Then it shall be said:
“Prepare, prepare, open up a way,
remove all obstructions from my people’s way.”
15 For thus says the Most High,
he who is enthroned forever,
he whose name is holy:
“I reign exalted and holy
but I am also with him who is contrite and humble in spirit,
to give the contrite a heart revived
and the humble in spirit a new life.
16 For I will not contend forever,
nor will I always be angry,
lest the spirit of man faint before me,
the very breath that I have created.
17 His wickedness enraged me for a time,
I smote him and hid my face,
for he, a rebel, wanted to go his own drive.
And I have seen his ways.
18 But from now on I will console,
I will heal and fully comfort him,
– all those of his people who mourn.
19 I will bring smiles to their lips. Peace!
Peace to him who is far and to him who is near.
I will indeed heal you,” Yahweh says.
20 But the wicked are like a turbulent sea
that finds no rest
and whose waters cast up mire and slime.
21 “There is no peace,” says my God,
“for the wicked.”