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.”