I Dwell With Him Who Is of a Contrite Spirit
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. 2 He enters into peace. They rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness. 3 “But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes. 4 Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood, 5 you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? 6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They, they are your lot. You have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things? 7 On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice. 8 You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts, for you have exposed yourself to someone besides me, and have gone up. You have enlarged your bed and made a covenant for yourself with them. You loved what you saw on their bed. 9 You went to the king with oil, increased your perfumes, sent your ambassadors far off, and degraded yourself even to Sheol. 10 You were wearied with the length of your ways; yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’ You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren’t faint. 11 “Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time, and you don’t fear me? 12 I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not benefit you. 13 When you cry, let those whom you have gathered deliver you, but the wind will take them. A breath will carry them all away, but he who takes refuge in me will possess the land, and will inherit my holy mountain.” 14 He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.” 15 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, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. 16 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. 17 I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him. I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. 18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. 19 I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.” 20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud. 21 “There is no peace”, says my God, “for the wicked.”
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.
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.
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?
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.’ You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren’t faint.
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.
“Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time, and you don’t fear me?
The silence of God read as permission, which the fiftieth psalm named as the standard mistake Psalms 50:21.
He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”
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, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
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.
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. I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.
The expected sequel to I have seen his ways is judgment. What follows is a cure.
I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”
Paul takes the pairing up of Jews and Gentiles made one Ephesians 2:17.
settled What this mark means