Biblion Bible Commentary
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I Dwell With Him Who Is of a Contrite Spirit
Isaiah 57:1-21
1 The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil. · WEB
The righteous die and nobody notices, and the God who lives in the high and holy place gives a second address.
The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil Isaiah 57:1.
The observation is that good people die and it does not register. And the reading offered is unusual: they are taken away from the evil — the death is described as a removal before something rather than a loss.
He enters into peace. They rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness Isaiah 57:2.
Death as lying down, which is the collection's consistent picture.
You who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? Isaiah 57:5.
The indictment is child sacrifice, practiced in the valleys outside Jerusalem, and the chapter does not soften what it is describing.
You were wearied with the length of your ways; yet you didn't say, "It is in vain" Isaiah 57:10.
The sharpest line in the section. They exhausted themselves at it and never once concluded that it was not working. Persistence is named as the failure — the effort itself supplied the sense that something was being achieved.
Haven't I held my peace for a long time, and you don't fear me? Isaiah 57:11.
The silence of God read as permission, which the fiftieth psalm named as the standard mistake Psalms 50:21.
Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people Isaiah 57:14.
The highway again, and this time the obstruction being cleared is not geography.
For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit" Isaiah 57:15.
The finest verse in the last third of the book. The titles are piled up — high, lofty, inhabiting eternity, named Holy — and then two addresses are given, joined by also. He lives in the high and holy place, and with the crushed.
Nothing in the verse says he visits. Both are residences, and the second is described in the same breath as the first.
To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. The purpose of the second address is stated, and it is repair.
For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls whom I have made Isaiah 57:16.
The reason given for the limit on anger is that people would not survive it — and the last clause is the argument: they are whom I have made.
I have seen his ways, and will heal him Isaiah 57:18.
The expected sequel to I have seen his ways is judgment. What follows is a cure.
Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near Isaiah 57:19. Paul takes the pairing up of Jews and Gentiles made one Ephesians 2:17.
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