A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 60: No Peace for the Wicked

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 60: No Peace for the Wicked

In our last discussion, where in Isaiah chapter 56 Yahweh had described Himself as “the Lord Yahweh which gathereth the outcasts of Israel”, we cannot imagine that Yahweh had intended to violate His covenants and promises which He had made to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in order to gather to Israel any other people but “lost sheep” Israelites. So where verse 8 of that chapter continues and the Word of Yahweh says “Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him”, we would make the assertion that here, it is the children of Israel in Assyrian captivity who are being addressed, yet other Israelites had long been scattered elsewhere throughout the οἰκουμένη, or the world of that time, and they would also be gathered to Israel.

Over the nine centuries prior to the Assyrian captivities, many Israelites had been departing from the main body of Israel, and settling colonies abroad, throughout the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the rivers and coasts of Europe. In relation to Isaiah chapters 23 and 24 we had discussed The Burden of Tyre, and how the words of the prophet help serve to elucidate the fact that the Phoenicians of the historical records were indeed Israelites. In that prophecy, Yahweh had promised not to lose sight of those Israelites who had fled from the Assyrians by sea. However Phoenicians had been colonizing the world of the Mediterranean Basin and points beyond long before the time of Isaiah, and even before Judah got involved, where Solomon had employed ships to join Hiram in his mercantile endeavors. One notable example of those early colonies is Thebes in Greece, which was recognized as a Phoenician city throughout the classical Greek writings. The people of Thebes were described as having been fair and blond, especially by the Tragic Poets. Another notable Phoenician settlement in the Greek world was ancient Miletus, and there were others in Thessaly.

Furthermore, while there is no real opportunity to discuss it at length here in Isaiah, because it is outside the scope of Isaiah’s prophecy, we have also mentioned our evidence that the Danaan Greeks, who had come to the Peloponnese from Egypt not long before the time of the Exodus, the Dorian Greeks, who had come to the Peloponnese in the 12th century BC, and the Romans, who by ancient accounts were descended from the Trojans, and the Trojans themselves, according to the oldest Greek poets, also must have settled the Troad around the same time as the Exodus. The evidence that each of these groups were of Israel is found in other prophets, such as Ezekiel in reference to Dan, and also in the epistles of Paul of Tarsus, who wrote to Romans and Dorian Greeks expressing with certainty that they were of Israel, in his epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians. It is these earlier sojourners of Israel in Europe who would be gathered to Israel, in addition to those who would be gathered out of the Assyrian captivities.

This crucial history which connects our Christian European race to its remote past, and its ultimate destiny, is suppressed and even mocked by all those who uphold the lies of the jews concerning their own identity, as they pretend to be the Israel of God, and the blind leaders of the blind all blindly follow along, whether they be small town country pastors, television megachurch millionaires, or Ivy League academics. The result is that the denominational churches view Isaiah chapter 56, and most of the words of the prophets, in a very crude and oversimplified manner. They ignore most of what is said about the destiny of the children of Israel, they ignore the context of the narrative in which the verses sit, and they unabashedly make the assertion that the eunuchs and strangers of Isaiah chapter 56 are not Israelites, weaving a universalist narrative out of their error which contradicts the greater number of the other prophecies and promises of God. Isaiah chapter 56 is one of their clutch verses for somehow proving that any creature with two legs can be a Christian, but that is not at all what it means. On the contrary, if we have an interpretation which does not contradict God, or force God to deny or contradict Himself, and our interpretation is corroborated by ancient history, then that is the demonstrably correct interpretation, and the whole world is in error. One day the world will see this, and there will be no peace for the wicked.

The eunuchs described in this 56th chapter of Isaiah are Israelites, since the seed of Israel was cut off in punishment before God. The strangers in this chapter are Israelites, as Jacob had become a stranger in the eyes of God. We have provided explicit support for those assertions from Hosea, Obadiah and other prophets, and this interpretation does not come into conflict with anything in the Word of God, so it must be the correct interpretation. To insist otherwise is to oppose Yahweh God Himself by seeking to emend His Word, and no man should want to be found in opposition to Yahweh.

But the Word of Yahweh must have foreseen the manner in which this chapter would be abused, and that is a further witness against all those who claim that Yahweh would gather anyone to the children of Israel who were not of Israel. He is not contradicting Himself by saying that He gathers the outcasts of Israel, and even if there is a promise that Israel would inherit the nations, Yahweh only promised to gather Israel, and nobody else. So at the end of Isaiah chapter 56 we read, in part:

9 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. 10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. 11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

Here there is a direct connection between the dumb dog watchmen, who are the shepherds who seek only their own gain, and the beasts who are invited to devour. So we had cross-referenced this passage with a prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 31, where the Word of Yahweh had stated that “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast”, and we also cited Deuteronomy chapter 28, where we learn that one of the consequences of disobedience warns that aliens would overrun the nation and take away both its goods, its women and its children unto themselves. The fact that Yahweh had foreseen these things, and even takes ultimate credit for them as the children of Israel must suffer the inevitable punishments for their sins, does not relieve the blind shepherds who seek only to fill their own bellies of any culpability for their own sins. They shall indeed face judgment for having defiled and abused the Word of God for their own personal gain.

This is precisely the predicament in which the descendants of these same children of Israel find themselves in today, where their shepherds are inviting all sort of beasts and insisting that they are “people”, and it corresponds to many other prophecies, such as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble and the nations from the four corners of the earth being gathered by Satan, which is world Jewry, against the Camp of the Saints, or the Christian nations. Today, Christianity in the West is in the full service of the enemies of Christ on account of these same shepherds, who have taught men to worship Jews rather than Jesus, and who uphold the accursed enemies of God with the lie that they are His people, in blatant contradiction to the words of Christ and His apostles. So now, commencing with Isaiah chapter 57, the Word of Yahweh turns to address those who would do these things. However first there is a word for the righteous:

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 the evil to come. 2 He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. 

This chapter evokes a similar dissertation in the Wisdom of Solomon, in chapters 2 through 4, where we read of certain wicked men who would turn their backs on God and sought to profit by depriving others, especially the widows and the elderly. The account in Wisdom is not meant to be historical, but rather, it is exemplary of the pattern of sin and wickedness which is often found among our own people, people who end up going off into perdition and judgment on account of their greed. The pattern is often evident in history, and its lessons, similar to that of Isaiah here, are timeless. So in the example of Wisdom, in chapter 2, these men are portrayed as having declared that:

11 Our strength must be the law of righteousness, for that which is weak is proved to be useless. 12 We should lie in wait for the righteous because he is intractable to us and opposes our works, and he reproaches us for our transgressions of the law, and imprecates upon us for the transgressions of our training.

Quite frequently, the righteous men in a society are eliminated by the wicked in that very fashion, and we also see that in the world today. So the wicked ponder the killing of the righteous, and in part, a little later in the same chapter they are portrayed as having continued speaking and we read something which is also a Messianic prophecy, as it describes the same pattern of wicked men despising the righteous which is evident in the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ:

16 By him we are reckoned as spurious, and he abstains from our ways as from uncleanness. He pronounces blessed the ends of the just, and boasts that God is father [which enraged the Jews]. 17 We should see if there is truth in his words, and make trial of the things in his issue. 18 For if the just man is a son of God, He shall help him and deliver him from the hand of those in opposition [Luke 23:35]. 19 We shall test him with insult and injury, in order that we may know his kindness and prove his forbearance. 20 We should condemn him with a shameful death, for his examination shall be from his own words [Luke 23:2].

Following that, the author of Wisdom comments on their words and says:

21 These things they reckoned, and they were deceived; for their malice had blinded them, 22 and they did not know the mystery of God, nor did they hope for the reward of piety, nor did they discern a gift of honor for unblemished souls. 23 Because God created man for incorruption, and He made him an image of His Own eternity, 24 but through envy of the False Accuser death entered into the Society, and they tempting Him are of that portion.

Then, in the opening verses of Wisdom chapter 3, even if the wicked succeed in killing the righteous, the wicked have nevertheless failed, where we read a statement which evokes another assertion which was later made by Christ, in John chapter 10:

1 For the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them. 2 In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to die, and their departure is reckoned a misery, 3 and the passing away from us a destruction, but they are in peace.

So here we shall also digress, to state that Yahshua Christ Himself, the Suffering Servant here in these chapters of Isaiah, is also the foremost example of the righteous man who died at the hands of the wicked in the Wisdom of Solomon, because He considered the wicked to have been spurious, and they feared that He would prevent them from taking advantage of the people of Judaea for their own profit. So in the precise same manner that the wicked are portrayed as doing to the righteous in the Wisdom of Solomon, we read in Luke chapter 11 that the Pharisees had begun: “54 Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.” Then later, in Matthew chapter 22 we read: “15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.” They sought to condemn Christ on the basis of His Own words.

Even later, in John chapter 11, we read:

53 Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. 54 Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples. 55 And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves. 56 Then sought they for Jesus, and spake among themselves, as they stood in the temple, What think ye, that he will not come to the feast? 57 Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him.

Righteousness is intractable to the wicked, when the righteous do not approve of their sins, but rather, they speak out against them, so the wicked seek to destroy the righteous, a phenomenon which is also fully manifest in today’s world. The righteous today are even labeled as wicked, simply for rejecting their sins, as the wicked seek to normalize the sin and uphold it as some new morality just as Wisdom has portrayed them here as proclaiming “Our strength must be the law of righteousness.” So here we read in Isaiah that when the righteous seem to die, it is because Yahweh had mercy on them, and took them out of the way of the wicked and the punishments that would come upon them, even if they may die at the hands of the wicked themselves, as Christ had also been crucified.

So now the wicked are addressed here in Isaiah chapter 57:

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, 

Here, by necessity, we shall stop mid-sentence because the continuation in verse 5 shall take us into a different subject.

To “make ye a wide mouth” and to “draw out the tongue” against someone is evidently to accuse him, and here, ostensibly, to accuse one falsely. But where it has “a seed of falsehood” that by itself does not mean the the subjects of the statement are bastards, or spurious children. The New American Standard Bible translates the last clause of the verse to read “Are you not children of rebellion, Offspring of deceit”. However if any of them were bastards, the reasons for that become evident in verse 5.

However at this point in their history, all of the children of Israel had been considered adulterers and whores, since they were collectively responsible for the sins of their entire nation. So, for example, in Hosea chapter 7 we read:

1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. 2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face. 3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. 4 They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

We should take a note of the reference to “the troop of robbers [who] spoileth without”, or from the outside, as we shall comment on that later in Isaiah. Even earlier in the prophecy of Hosea, in chapter 2, where Yahweh had disavowed the people in the examples of Loruhamah and Loammi, we read:

2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

In these statements of Hosea, that the children of Israel “are all adulterers” and “the children of whoredoms”, there is full corroboration for Isaiah’s statement here, that they are “the seed of the adulterer and the whore”. Aside from Isaiah himself, Hosea is most relevant to this prophecy, since he described the sins of Israel on account of which they had been taken into captivity, at a time when that captivity was just about to begin, which was in the days of Tiglath-Pileser III around 743 BC. That is only about 45 years before Isaiah had written these words, as the last estimable date we have here in Isaiah is that of the failed siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians which happened around 700 BC, which is described in chapter 37.

Here where Yahweh had asked the sinful of the children of Israel a rhetorical question which reads “are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood?” In the very opening chapter of Isaiah, addressing the children of Israel in particular, we read a similar statement:

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

While Adam was created to be good, and while elsewhere Israel is considered righteous, speaking of the children of Israel in general we read later, in Jeremiah chapter 2 where the Word of Yahweh had lamented and asked:

21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

With this it should be evident, that the seed of Israel certainly is good, and even righteous, if it follows the law. But if it departs from the law, inevitably it shall become corrupted. David had written in the 143rd Psalm exhorting Yahweh God to “2 … enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” For that reason, Paul had paraphrased David’s words in Romans chapter 3 and wrote: “20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The deeds of the law were the works or rituals of the law, by which men made propitiation for sin, but by which they were never really justified. Further on in that same place he explained that “23 … all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” and therefore men could only be justified by the grace and redemption which is in Christ.

But contrary to what the denominational churches typically claim, Paul would not do away with the law. Rather, in Romans chapter 3 he wrote:

31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Then in Romans chapter 7, speaking about the relationship between sinful flesh and the law, he wrote:

14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

So to Paul, being spiritually minded is to follow the law, even if on occasion we fail and succumb to the desires of the flesh. Then, speaking of those who intentionally follow the desires of the flesh, he wrote in Romans chapter 8:

5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Since Paul had said that the law is spiritual, then being in the spirit is harmonious with keeping the law. This fact that Israel may be a right seed, or a wicked seed, might sound contradictory to the creation of God, which Yahweh God Himself had called “good”. However while Yahweh called His Creation “good”, evidently, because man has a will of his own, he is prone to sin, and therefore man can only attain to good if man is obedient to the laws of God, because for that purpose man was created.

Returning to the account of the wicked in chapter 2 of the Wisdom of Solomon we read of the folly of the wicked in their shortsightedness, and a description of the purpose for which man was created [we have already cited this passage earlier]:

21 These things they reckoned, and they were deceived; for their malice had blinded them, 22 and they did not know the mystery of God, nor did they hope for the reward of piety, nor did they discern a gift of honor for unblemished souls. 23 Because God created man for incorruption, and He made him an image of His Own eternity, 24 but through envy of the False Accuser death entered into the Society, and they tempting Him are of that portion.

Pious and unblemished souls are men who strove to keep the law. These are the spiritually-minded of whom Paul had spoken in Romans chapter 8. But those who turn their backs from the law go into perdition, joining themselves to the beast that goes into perdition, described in Revelation chapter 17. This is the answer to the question in Jeremiah which asks “… how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?” This is also a significant subject throughout the historical portions of the Old Testament. So now we shall see that Solomon also described the fate of the wicked in that manner, in Wisdom chapter 3:

10 But the impious shall have punishment just as they imagined, they who have no care for the just [or righteous] and departing from Yahweh. 11 For he who is despising wisdom and discipline is miserable, and their hope is empty and labors unprofitable, and their works useless. 12 Their wives are senseless and their children wicked, cursed is their origin.

As we shall see at the end of this chapter of Isaiah, there is no rest for the wicked. The wives of the impious are senseless not because the women themselves have poor mental faculties, but because the impious having turned their backs on their own people, and on their own God, for that they are often found with wives of poor choice, a senseless choice, since they are wives who are not of their own people and God. This was also a sin which Solomon himself had committed on a grand scale, whereas his repentance is evident in another of his writings, which is Ecclesiastes. Now in the very next passage there is a reference which evokes the opening verses of Isaiah chapters 54 and 56, where barren women and eunuchs are mentioned:

13 Because blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled: whoever has not known a marriage bed in transgression shall have fruit in the visitation of souls, 14 and the eunuch who with a hand has not practiced lawlessness nor even considered evil against Yahweh. For a select favor shall be given to him of the faith, and a more delightful portion in the temple of Yahweh.

So the Wisdom of Solomon uses language similar to what we have seen here in Isaiah, and uses the barren and the eunuchs as examples, much as Isaiah had used them, of people who seem to have been accursed in this life, but who nevertheless seek righteousness, on account of which they would have a much greater reward in the world to come. Now the verses which follow return us to the fate of the wicked, and they also clarify what was meant by having senseless wives:

15 For glorious is the fruit of good labors, and infallible is the root of understanding. 16 But the children of adulterers shall be for no purpose, and the seed of an unlawful marriage bed shall be destroyed. 17 For even if they become long-lived they shall be accounted for nothing and without honor at the ends of their old age. 18 Then if they die quickly, they shall have no hope, nor consolation in the day of decision. 19 For grievous are the ends of an unrighteous race.

In Jeremiah chapter 2, the prophet’s question which had asked “how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?” is answered in the verse which followed:

22 For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.

But it had also been answered before it was asked, earlier in the same chapter and in the declaration:

13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Solomon’s description of the wicked continues into chapter 4 of Wisdom:

1 Better is childlessness with virtue, for immortality is in its remembrance, that is also known with God and with men. 2 Being present, they imitate it, and desire it when it is gone, and forever wearing a crown, prevailing it leads the contest of the undefiled in the struggle. 3 But the many-breeding multitude of the impious shall not be useful, and from bastard seedlings it shall not give a deep root, nor shall it establish a firm foundation. 4 For even if it sprouts up in branches for a time, standing unsafely it is shaken by the wind and by the force of the winds it is uprooted. 5 The imperfected branches shall be broken off and their fruit useless, unseasonable for food and suitable for nothing. 6 For children begotten from of lawless slumber are witnesses of wickedness against their parents at their examination.

At the end of Jeremiah chapter 2 there is one more curious statement where we read in verse 30 that “In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction…” Paul of Tarsus described those who were not chastised by the punishments for sins in Hebrews chapter 12 where we read:

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

It is not a coincidence, that Paul had followed that statement with a description of the condemnation of Esau, whom he then described as a fornicator and a profane man, ostensibly on account of the same reason for which Esau’s own parents had rejected him: because he had taken senseless wives.

This is why the Word of Yahweh had said, speaking of Israel in captivity in Amos chapter 9:

9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

This is also why Yahweh had spoken of Israel in the wilderness, in Ezekiel chapter 20, and said:

38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

The parallels here in Isaiah cannot be easily dismissed. We have a promise for the childless, the eunuchs, the barren, the estranged, that they will be rewarded handsomely if they seek virtue, and now we have a warning for the wicked, the end of whom is much like those wicked who had been described in the Wisdom of Solomon. Here the wicked will also be described as making their beds with aliens, and for that they shall meet a similar fate. So Yahweh continues to address the sons of the sorceress, the adulterer and the whore, and where He had begun by asking them “are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,” the question continues:

5 Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? 

This is also the reason given for their captivity in 2 Kings chapter 17, where we read in part:

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. 10 And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: 11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the [nations] whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: 12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.

It is unlikely, since they had done those things for over two hundred years, that they would have stopped doing them in their time of captivity. This is in spite of the fact that Yahweh had promised, in relation to their going into captivity in Hosea chapter 2, that “17 … I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth”, because that process may have taken many centuries, and it was probably still not complete even when they were turned to Christianity.

So returning to Isaiah chapter 57, the Word of Yahweh continues, in relation to their idolatry:

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? 

The word translated as valleys in verse 5 is the same word translated as stream here in verse 6, which is the Hebrew word נחל or nachal (#5158), which describes a particular type of valley, a ravine formed by a torrent or stream. So ravine or even creek would be a better translation in both places, and more consistent, since the reference to smooth stones would then be more clear. The children of Israel were slaying their children near the creeks, where smooth stones may be found. Ostensibly, the smooth stones were used to set up their sacrificial altars, or even to represent the idols to whom they had sacrificed. But that is not the only aspect of their idolatry, as we shall see in the verses which follow: 

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. 

The Greek of the Septuagint agrees with verse 7 here, but it has the beginning of verse 8 to read, as Brenton had translated it: “and behind the posts of thy door thou didst place thy memorials.” But here we must ask: How could people offer sacrifice to their idols on a bed? The answer is found in the nature of ancient Baal worship, as the cults of Baal were primarily fertility cults which celebrated sexual intercourse, or more properly, adultery and fornication.

In his Histories, in Book 1 Chapter 199, the Greek historian Herodotus described how the women of Babylon, married women, were compelled by a religious requirement to go the the temple of Ishtar and have sex with the first stranger who was willing to pay her, no matter the amount. The money would then be surrendered to the temple. Then there were the temple prostitutes, which were both male and female slaves which were owned by the temple and hired out for sex with whoever desired to pay for it.

In Book 8, chapter 6 of his Geography (8.6.20), Strabo of Cappadocia described the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth as having had twelve thousand such slaves who were compelled to prostitution, and in Book 12, chapter 3 (12.3.36) he described Pontus as a “lesser Corinth” on account of the number of temple prostitutes kept there. For this same reason, we see in Numbers chapter 24 that where “1 … Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab” that act was described as an act of idolatry: “2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” The resulting plague was stopped when Phinehas took up a spear and killed a man of Israel and woman of Midian in a single thrust, where they were evidently having sexual intercourse in the tent.

These are the sacrifices which were offered on beds: where even complete strangers would engage in acts of sexual intercourse with others. These were also the first marriages conducted at an altar, at the altars of the pagan temples. So with this understanding we should read the translation of verses 4 through 8 as they are found in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible:

4 Whom are you mocking? And against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of lies, 5 you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every spreading tree, who slaughter your children in the ravines, under the clefts of the rocks? 6 Among the smooth stones of the ravines is your portion. There they go as your lot; to them you have poured out drink offerings, you have brought grain offerings. Am I to be appeased for these things? 7 You have made your bed on a high and lofty mountain, and there you went up to offer sacrifice. 8 Behind the doors and the doorposts you have set up your pagan sign; for in deserting me you have uncovered your bed, you have climbed up into it and have opened it wide, and you have made a pact for yourself with them; you have loved their bed, you have looked on their penis.

Tertullian, the bishop of Carthage and Christian apologist, had written in his Apology, in Chapter 15, paragraph 7, of the adultery and pandering which had occurred in the pagan temples, where at first he responded to some of the pagan spectacles and said:

But those you will say are mere shows.

Then continuing he wrote, in defense of Christians:

If however I were to add--what will be equally admitted by the consciences of all--that adulteries are arranged in the temples, that panders ply their trade among the altars, that often in the very rooms of sacristans and priests, under the same fillets and sacred caps and purple vestments, lust is satisfied while the incense is burning, I know not whether your gods may not find more reason to complain about you than about the Christians. Certainly those guilty of sacrilege are always of your number. For the Christians do not know the temples even by day. Perhaps they might also rob them themselves, if they themselves also did reverence to them. What then do they worship who do not worship such things? Already indeed it is easy to be understood that those are worshippers of the truth who are not worshippers of a lie, and that they no longer err in a matter in which the recognition of previous error taught them to give it up. Grasp this fact first, and thence gather the whole order of our mystery, first however rejecting certain false notions. [1]

There are many more attestations in Classical and Hellenistic literature, and in other early Christian apologists, such as Minucius Felix, that such licentious practices were rather routine in the pagan temples, and especially in the temples of Baal. The Hebrew word אשרה or asherah was often translated as groves in the King James Version, but the word should actually have been associated with the phalluses of Asherah, Ashtoreth or Ishtar, the consort of Baal. The euphemisms of the King James Version have long obscured these references. Other modern translations read the original inferences into the text, which may not what we would do, but in cases such as this, doing so captures the original meaning much better than the King James euphemisms. So here we shall read verses 6 through 8 of this chapter again, from an unlikely source, for us, which is the Good News Translation:

6 You take smooth stones from there and worship them as gods. You pour out wine as offerings to them and bring them grain offerings. Do you think I am pleased with all this? 7 You go to the high mountains to offer sacrifices and have sex. 8 You set up your obscene idols just inside your front doors. You forsake me; you take off your clothes and climb in your large beds with your lovers, whom you pay to sleep with you. And there you satisfy your lust. [2]

If the children of Israel had been worshipping Baal side-by-side with their Canaanite neighbors, which is certainly something that is frequently illustrated in the historical scriptures of the Old Testament, then it is no wonder that Yahweh would have to sift them as grain and destroy the rebels in the time of their captivity.

Moving on to verse 9, we will have another issue with the translation:

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. 

The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has this passage to read:

9 You went to Molech with olive oil and increased your perfumes; you sent ambassadors far away, you sent them down to Sheol itself!

The Hebrew word for king is מלך or melek (# 4428) while the word for Molech, the abomination to which the children of Israel had sacrificed their children, has the same exact spelling, although on account of the fact that the later rabbinical vowel points are different, it is assigned a different entry (#4432) in many lexicons, including that of Strong’s Concordance. Ignoring the innovations of the rabbis, however, the distinction can only be made in context, and here the context insists that we favor the reading in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. In that source we also find a note that the same word may be read as king. 

But the reading of verse 9 in the Septuagint may also be considered, as we favor the reading found in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible at the end of the verse as well. So in the Septuagint we read:

9 and thou hast multiplied thy whoredom with them, and thou hast increased the number of them that are far from thee, and hast sent ambassadors beyond thy borders, and hast been debased even to hell.

Proceeding with verse 10:

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. 

Perhaps the reading in the New American Standard Bible, which corresponds to that of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, better captures the sense of the original:

10 You were tired out by the length of your road, Yet you did not say, 'It is hopeless.' You found renewed strength, Therefore you did not faint.

In other words, the idolaters found renewed strength to continue in their idolatry, and they did not repent in their captivity. So continuing with verse 11:

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? 

The New American Standard Bible has the final sentence of this verse to read: “Was I not silent even for a long time So you do not fear Me?”

12 I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee. 

Where we read “I will declare thy righteousness”, it probably should not be read as a promise, but it also should not be read as a condemnation, as the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has the phrase to read “I will denounce your righteousness”. Of course, the righteousness of the wicked is wicked, and not righteous. However this particular word rendered as declare here, נגד or nagad (# 5046) is simply to make a declaration, or announcement, without any inference as to whether the declaration is an affirmation or a denunciation. 

So the Septuagint has this verse to read, as Brenton translated it:

12  And I will declare thy righteousness, and thy sins, which shall not profit thee.

In any event, the people shall indeed be judged according to their works, and there will be no peace for the wicked. But now we shall see that not all of them will be wicked:

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; 14 And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people. 

So it seems that once the rebels are purged, the grain shall be sifted and the people shall be renewed, and their stumbling-block removed. But this may also describe a process which only unfolded over many centuries, and may not be complete even to this very day. Now there is a sort of lamentation, and Yahweh once again professes His plan of restoration for Israel:

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. 

Yahshua Christ had later reaffirmed these words, in His famous Sermon on the Mount, where we read in Matthew chapter 5:

1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

True peacemakers seek to make peace between and God. True humility is obedience to God, and not to men, for which we read in chapter 4 of Paul’s epistle to the Philippians:

5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

Yet as we shall see at the end of this chapter of Isaiah, there is no peace for the wicked. So the apostle James admonished men, in chapter 4 of his epistle, and said:

6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Then a little further on:

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Christ Himself set the standard for Christian humility, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 18:

3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Typically, a little child adores and obeys his father without disputation, and in that manner men should consider adoring and obeying Yahweh their God.

Christ Himself professes to be humble, for which reason men should choose obedience to Him, where we read in Matthew chapter 11:

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

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. 

The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible better captures the meaning of a conjunction at the beginning of the second half of the verse, where it has:

16 For I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit would grow faint before me – the souls that I have created.

So we have seen that even if the flesh is punished unto death on account of its sins, Yahweh will nevertheless have mercy on the spirits of those Adamic men which He has created. Now He shall explain that further in the verses which follow:

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. 

So Jacob is punished for his sins, but, as we read in Isaiah chapter 45:

17 Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.

And then a little further on in that chapter:

25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

More significantly, in that chapter the theme is very much the same as this one, where it also speaks of the punishment of Israel for their sins, and where Yahweh declares what is righteousness. So earlier in the chapter we read:

7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Yahweh creates evil in the eyes of men, by which they are punished for their sins. Then, just before the promise in verse 17 that Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation, it seems that the wicked were accounted separately where it says:

16 They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.

Now here also, there are people who are evidently not healed and comforted, and who therefore could not have been true Israelites, not of the Adamic souls which He had created:

20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. 

Here it is evident, that the wicked are not the same people as those spirits of His creation, who shall be healed and comforted in spite of their sins.

At the announcement of the birth of the Christ child to the shepherds who pastured the adjoining fields, in Luke chapter 2, we shall read a verse from the Christogenea New Testament, because the translators of the King James Version twisted it to say something contrary to the actual meaning of the Greek:

13 And suddenly there were with the messenger a multitude of the heavenly army praising Yahweh and saying: 14 “Honor to Yahweh in the heights, and peace upon the earth among approved men.”

To its credit, the New American Standard Bible translated the passage similarly:

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

As for the wicked, the children of Israel had been warned at the beginning, in Deuteronomy chapter 23:

6 Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.

But Adam was warned much sooner, in the only law which he had been given, found in Genesis chapter 2:

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

We would assert that this is the origin of the wicked here: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This concludes our commentary through Isaiah chapter 57.

Footnotes

1 Tertullian's Defence of the Christians Against the Heathen, The Tertullian Project, translated by Alexander Souter, https://www.tertullian.org/articles/mayor_apologeticum/mayor_apologeticum_ 07translation.htm, accessed February 20th, 2026.

2 Isaiah 57, Biblestudytools.com, https://www.biblestudytools.com/gnt/isaiah/57.html, accessed February 20th, 2026.