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 you a covenant with them.You loved what you saw on their bed.
9 You went to the king with oil,and increased your perfumes,and 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 thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity,whose name is Holy:“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 the Lord; “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.”