57 *The righteous perisheth, and no man alayeth it to heart:

And †merciful men are ctaken away, none considering

dThat the righteous cis taken away ||from the evil to come.

2  He shall ||enter into peace:

They shall rest in their ebeds,

Each one walking ||in his fuprightness.

3  But draw near hither, ye sons of ffthe sorceress,

gkThe seed of the adulterer and the whore.

4  Against whom do ye hsport yourselves?

Against whom imake ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?

Are ye not children of transgression, ka seed of falsehood,

5  Enflaming yourselves ||with lidols llunder every green tree,

mSlaying the children in the valleys under nthe clifts of the rocks?

6  Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion;

They, they are thy lot:

Even to them hast thou poured a drink offering,

Thou hast offered a meat offering.

Should I receive comfort in these?

7  oUpon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set pthy bed:

Even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.

8  qBehind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up rthy remembrance:

For sthou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up;

Thou hast enlarged pthy bed, and ||made thee a covenant with them;

tThou lovedst their bed ||uwhere thou sawest it.

9  And ||wthou wentest to the king with xointment,

And ydidst increase xthy perfumes,

And didst zsend thy messengers far off,

And didst debase thyself even unto hell.

10  aThou art wearied in the greatness of thy way;

Yet bsaidst thou not, There is no hope:

cThou hast found the ||life of thine hand;

Therefore thou wast not grieved.

11  And dof whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that ethou hast lied,

And dhast not remembered me, nor flaid it to thy heart?

gHave not I held my peace even of old,

And thou fearest me not?

12  I will declare thy righteousness,

And thy works; for they shall not profit thee.

13  When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee;

But the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them:

But hhe that putteth his trust in me ishall possess the land,

And shall inherit kmy holy mountain;

14  And shall say, lCast ye up, cast ye up, lmprepare the way,

Take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.

15  For thus saith the high and lofty One

That inhabiteth neternity, owhose name is Holy;

I dwell pin the high and qholy place,

rWith him also that is of a contrite and shumble spirit,

tTo revive the spirit of the humble,

And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

16  uFor I will not contend for ever,

Neither will I be always wroth:

For vthe spirit wshould fail before me,

And vthe souls xwhich I have made.

17  For the iniquity of yhis covetousness yywas I wroth, and smote him:

zI hid me, and was wroth,

And he went on †frowardly in the way of his heart.

18  I have seen his ways, and awill heal him:

I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to bhis mourners.

19  I create cthe fruit of the lips;

dePeace, peace fto him that is gfar off, and fto him that is near, saith the Lord;

And aI will heal him.

20  But hthe wicked are like the troubled sea,

When it cannot rest,

Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

21  iThere is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.