Isaiah 57: The High and Lofty One

"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness" (57:1–2).

"But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore… Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion… Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed… And thou wentest to the king with ointment… When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away… but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain" (vv. 3–13).

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth… I have seen his ways, and will heal him" (vv. 15–18).

"I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (vv. 19–21).

Valleys, stones and the dead

The accusations use places and objects known from Iron Age Judah and its neighbors: shrines on hills and under trees (2 Kings 17:10), standing stones, offerings for the dead, and child sacrifice associated with the Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31). Archaeology has found cult places, standing stones and household figurines in Judah, and infant burial precincts called tophets at Carthage and other Phoenician colonies. It has not found a Topheth in Jerusalem, and no excavated shrine can be matched to a particular line of Isaiah 57. The poem gathers traditional accusations; it does not map a site.

Transcendence and nearness

Verse 15 joins two ideas that the book has kept in tension since chapter 6: God "high and lifted up" (ram ve-nissa, 6:1; 57:15) and God present with the people. Here God's dwelling is both "the high and holy place" and "with him also that is of a contrite (dakka') and humble spirit." Dakka' is the root of "crushed" in the servant song (53:5, 10). Psalm 34:18 and 51:17 say the same of the broken heart. Isaiah 57:14–58:14 is read in synagogues on the morning of Yom Kippur (b. Megillah 31a).

"I dwell" or "he dwells"?

The Masoretic Text has God speak in the first person ("I dwell," eshkon). The Great Isaiah Scroll and 4QIsa-d have the third person ("he dwells," yishkon), as does the library's Greek; Jerome's participle ("habitans") has no person. The meaning is almost the same; the variant shows how the line between a prophet's description and God's speech could shift in copying (described from transcriptions; ISA-C4).

Imagery of sexual unfaithfulness

Like Hosea, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the poem uses a female figure's sexual unfaithfulness to describe the people's worship of other gods ("thou hast enlarged thy bed," v. 8). Modern readers, including many who take the text as Scripture, have pointed out that such imagery depends on an ancient view of women's sexuality as a husband's possession, and that it shames a female figure for a whole people's sin. The site reports what the text says, explains its metaphor, and leaves the ethical question open (ISA-C9).