¹The righteous man is no more,

And there is no man who lays it to heart,

And kind men have been taken away,

With no-one understanding

That it is because of evil

That the righteous man has been taken away.

²He will enter into peace;

They will rest on their couches,

Each who walks in his uprightness.

³But as for you, draw near here,

You sons of the diviner by clouds,

And seed of the adulterer and the prostitute.

⁴Against whom do you make sport for yourselves?

Whom do you smirk at?

Whom do you poke the tongue at?

Are you not transgressive children

– A false seed?

⁵– You who are inflamed by idols

Under every luxuriant tree,

Slaughtering children at the streams

Under the fissures in the rocks?

⁶Your lot is in the bare reaches of a stream;

They are what your fate is.

To them also you poured out a libation

And raised an offering.

Should I be comforted by these?

⁷You have made your bed

On a high and lofty mountain;

There too you went up

To offer sacrifice.

⁸And you have left your memorial

Behind the door and doorpost,

For you have uncovered yourself

To someone other than me,

And you have gone up,

And you have made your bed widely available,

And you have made yourself a covenant

With some of them.

You have loved their bed;

You have seen their male member.

⁹And you went to the king with oil,

And you took many fragrances,

And you sent your ambassadors far and wide,

And you brought people down to the grave.

¹⁰You exhaust yourself with your grand way.

You have not said,

‘It is desperate.’

You have found vitality in your reach,

Which is why you have not flagged.

¹¹And about whom have you been anxious,

And whom do you fear?

For you are dealing dishonestly,

And you have not remembered me;

You have not laid it to your heart.

Have I not been silent ever since age-old time,

While you have not been fearing me?

¹²I can tell of your righteousness

And your works,

But they will not profit you.

¹³When you cry out,

Let your troops deliver you,

But the wind will carry them all away

– A puff of breath will take them away.

But he who trusts in me

Will inherit the land

And will come into possession

Of my holy mountain.

¹⁴And he will say,

‘Raise an embankment, raise an embankment,

Clear a way;

Remove any obstacle

From my people's road.’

¹⁵For this is what the one

Who is high and exalted,

Who lives permanently,

And whose name is holy,

Says:

I will dwell on high,

And holily,

And with the contrite and humble in spirit,

To revive the spirit of the lowly,

And to revitalize the heart

Of those ground down.

¹⁶For I will not contend age-abidingly,

And I will not be angry in perpetuity,

For a spirit could succumb before me,

As would living beings

Which I have made.

¹⁷I was angry at the iniquity of his unjust gain,

And I struck him.

I hide myself and I show anger,

But he walks rebelliously

In the way of his heart.

¹⁸I have seen his ways

But I will heal him and lead him,

And I will restore comfort to him

And to those of his company who mourn.

¹⁹I create the fruit of the lips:

Says the Lord,

And I will heal him.

²⁰But the wicked are like a raging sea,

For it cannot be calm,

And its waters cast up mud and mire.

²¹There is no peace”,

Says my God,

“For the wicked.”

Reference(s) in Chapter 57: v.19 ↔ Ephesians 2:17.