2. Post-Exile: The Blessing & Judgment Cycles ( 40:1 - 66:24 ) - 701-681 B.C., Israel

(These 8 groups of prophecies alternate between blessings on Israel and judgment on God's enemies.)

E. Cycle 5 (52:1 - 57:13)

2. Judgment On Israel's Evil Rulers and Evil Inhabitants (Continued) (56:9 - 57:13)

¹ 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 [from the face of] the evil to come.
² He shall enter into peace:
they shall rest in their beds,
each one walking in his uprightness.

³ But draw near hither,
ye sons of the sorceress,
the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
⁴ Against whom do ye sport yourselves?
against whom make ye a wide mouth,
and draw out the tongue?
are ye not children of transgression,
a seed of falsehood,
⁵ Enflaming yourselves with idols
under every green tree,
slaying the children
in the valleys under the 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 Upon a lofty and high mountain
hast thou set thy bed:
even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.
⁸ Behind the doors also
and the posts
hast thou set up thy remembrance:
for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me,
and art gone up;
thou hast enlarged thy bed,
and made thee a covenant with them;
thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.
⁹ And thou wentest to the king
with ointment,
and didst increase thy perfumes,
and didst send thy messengers far off,
and didst debase thyself even unto hell.
¹⁰ Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way;
yet saidst thou not,
There is no hope:
thou hast found the life of thine hand;
therefore thou wast not grieved.

¹¹ And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared,
that thou hast lied,
and hast not remembered me,
nor laid it to thy heart?
have 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 he that putteth his trust in me
shall possess the land,
and shall inherit my holy mountain;

F. Cycle 6 (57:14 - 59:21)

1. Blessing On the Contrite, Humble, and Repentant in Israel (57:14 - 59:15)

¹⁴ And shall say,
Cast ye up,
cast ye up,
prepare the way,
take up the stumblingblock
out of the way of my people.
¹⁵ 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.
¹⁶ For I will not contend for ever,
neither will I be always wroth:
for the spirit should fail before me,
and the souls which I have made.
¹⁷ For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth,
and smote him:
I hid me,
and was wroth,
and he went on frowardly
in the way of his heart.
¹⁸ I have seen his ways,
and will heal him:
I will lead him also,
and restore comforts unto him
and to his mourners.
¹⁹ 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.
²⁰ But the wicked are like the troubled sea,
when it cannot [not it is able to] rest,
whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
²¹ There is no [nothing of] peace,
saith my God,
to the wicked.