Isaiah 57:1
“The Death of the Righteous”Isaiah 57:1–2
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- הַצַּדִּיקha·tza·Dikthe righteous [person]H6662Art ¦ Adj-msAdjective Singular Masculine Absoluteהַtheצַּדִּיקrighteous [person]
- אָבָד'a·Vadhe has perishedH6V-Qal-Perf-3msVerb Qal Perfect 3rd Singular Masculine
- וְאֵיןve·'Einand there notH369Conj-w ¦ N-mscNoun Singular Masculine Constructוְandאֵיןthere not
- אִישׁ'ish[is] anyoneH376N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- שָׂםsam[who] putsH7760V-Qal-Prtcpl-msVerb Qal Participle Singular Masculine Absolute
- עַל'alonH5921PrepPreposition
- לֵבLevheartH3820N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- וְאַנְשֵׁיve·'an·sheiand people ofH582Conj-w ¦ N-mpcNoun Plural Masculine Constructוְandאַנְשֵׁיpeople of
- חֶסֶדChe·sedloyaltyH2617N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- נֶאֱסָפִיםne·'e·sa·Fim[are] being removedH622V-Niphal-Prtcpl-mpVerb Niphal Participle Plural Masculine Absolute
- בְּאֵיןbe·'Einwhen there notH369Prep-b ¦ N-mscNoun Singular Masculine Constructבְּwhenאֵיןthere not
- מֵבִיןme·Vin[is one who] understandsH995V-Hiphil-Prtcpl-msVerb Hiphil Participle Singular Masculine Absolute
- כִּיkithatH3588PrtParticle Conditional
- מִפְּנֵיmi·pe·Neifrom beforeH6440Prep-m ¦ N-mpcNoun Plural Masculine Constructמִfromפְּנֵיbefore
- הָרָעָהha·ra·'Ah[the] evilH7451Art ¦ N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absoluteהָ[the]רָעָהevil
- נֶאֱסַףne·'e·Safhe is removedH622V-Niphal-Perf-3msVerb Niphal Perfect 3rd Singular Masculine
- הַצַּדִּיקha·tza·Dikthe righteous [person]H6662Art ¦ Adj-msAdjective Singular Masculine Absoluteהַtheצַּדִּיקrighteous [person]
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Isaiah 57:1–2. He set out his notes in a three-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
The prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had condemned the watchmen for their ignorance and sottishness; here he shows the general stupidity and senselessness of the people likewise. No wonder they were inconsiderate when their watchmen were so, who should have awakened them to consideration. We may observe here,
I.The providence of God removing good men apace out of this world.
The righteous, as to this world, perish; they are gone and their place knows them no more. Piety exempts none from the arrests of death, nay, in persecuting times, the most righteous are most exposed to the violences of bloody men. The first that died died a martyr. Righteousness delivers from the sting of death, but not from the stroke of it. They are said to perish because they are utterly removed from us, and to express the great loss which this world sustains by the removal of them, not that their death is their undoing, but it often proves an undoing to the places where they lived and were useful. Nay, even merciful men are taken away, those good men that are distinguished from the righteous, for whom some would even dare to die, Romans 5:7. Those are often removed that could be worst spared; the fruitful trees are cut down by death and the barren left still to cumber the ground. Merciful men are often taken away by the hands of men's malice. Many good works they have done, and for some of them they are stoned. Before the captivity in Babylon perhaps there was a more than ordinary mortality of good men, so that there were scarcely any left, Jeremiah 5:1. The godly ceased, and the faithful failed, Psalm 12:1.
II.The careless world slighting these providences, and disregarding them:
No man lays it to heart, none considers it. There are very few that lament it as a public loss, very few that take notice of it as a public warning. The death of good men is a thing to be laid to heart and considered more than common deaths. Serious enquiries ought to be made, wherefore God contends with us, what good lessons are to be learned by such providences, what we may do to help to make up the breach and to fill up the room of those that are removed. God is justly displeased when such events are not laid to heart, when the voice of the rod is not heard nor the intentions of it answered, much more when it is rejoiced in, as the slaying of the witnesses is, Revelation 11:10. Some of God's choicest blessings to mankind, being thus easily parted with, are really undervalued; and it is an evidence of very great incogitancy. Little children, when they are little, least lament the death of their parents, because they know not what a loss it is to them.
III.The happiness of the righteous in their removal.
1.They are taken away from the evil to come, then when it is just coming,
(1.)In compassion to them, that they may not see the evil (2 Kings 22:20), nor share in it, nor be in temptation by it. When the deluge is coming they are called into the ark, and have a hiding-place and rest in heaven when there was none for them under heaven.
(2.)In wrath to the world, to punish them for all the injuries they have done to the righteous and merciful ones; those are taken away that stood in the gap to turn away the judgments of God, and then what can be expected but a deluge of them? It is a sign that God intends war when he calls home his ambassadors.
2.They go to be easy out of the reach of that evil. The righteous man, who while he lived walked in his uprightness, when he dies enters into peace and rests in his bed. Note,
(1.)Death is gain, and rest, and bliss, to those only who walked in their uprightness, and who, when they die, can appeal to God concerning it, as Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:3). Now, Lord, remember it.
(2.)Those that practised uprightness, and persevered in it to the end, shall find it well with them when they die. Their souls then enter into peace, into the world of peace, where peace is in perfection and where there is no trouble. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. Their bodies rest in their beds. Note, The grave is a bed of rest to all the Lord's people; there they rest from all their labours, Revelation 14:13. And the more weary they were the more welcome will that rest be to them, Job 3:17. This bed is made in the darkness, but that makes it the more quiet; it is a bed out of which they shall rise refreshed in the morning of the resurrection.
Historical interpretation
Two Centuries of Reception
3 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.
(Chapter 57, Verses 1-2) The righteous perish, and there is no one who takes it to heart; the men of mercy are gathered, but there is no one who understands; for the righteous is taken away from the face of evil. Let peace come; let him rest in his bed who walks in his integrity. Look, how the righteous perishes, and no one takes it to heart; the upright are taken away, and no one considers. For the righteous is taken away from the presence of iniquity; his burial will be in peace; he is taken away from among us. Because of blind spies and mute dogs, who themselves are shepherds, lacking understanding, nor are they satisfied with present pleasures, but always prepare themselves for future ones, the righteous one perishes, concerning whom the wife of Pilate says: 'Have nothing to do with that righteous man' (Matthew 27:19). With washed hands, innocent am I, says she, from the blood of this righteous one. In which it should be considered that the word "perdition," concerning which heretics often make false accusations, signifies destruction and abolition forever, and is applied to Christ, whose perdition demonstrates the magnitude of persecution and not an end of substance. And no one, he says, is there who reflects in his heart, or ponders. For it could not be that the blind and mute, seeing vain and loving dreams, and ignorant of understanding and wisdom, would think those things which belong to God. And what follows: And the men of mercy, or the just, are gathered and taken away, signifies the Apostles, who are killed by the wicked, and are gathered by the Lord. And he gives the reasons why the just one is killed and taken away, saying: For the just one was collected from the face of evil, so that he would not see the evils of the world. Whether due to the wickedness of humans, whose sins he himself bore, he ascended to the Father as the victor. Now, concerning what is said in Hebrew: Let peace come, let it rest in its own dwelling; let it walk in its own direction, the meaning is indeed clear, but the coherence of the words, which stands in its own idiomatic language, seems to be disturbed among us. Now, concerning what he says, this is it: Let the peace of the Just One come, which he left to the Apostles when ascending to the Father, saying: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you (John 14:27). And when the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, comes, his apostles will rest in their beds, and their death will rest. From this it is shown that the martyrs do not perish, but conquer, and rest in an eternal dwelling. And he, whose peace it is and whose apostles rest in their beds, walks in his own direction, ascending to the Father as a victorious one on a straight path. Furthermore, what is read in the Septuagint: The righteous one was taken away from the presence of evil, his burial will be in peace, he was taken away from among us, everything is referred to Christ without the mingling of the apostles' person, whose burial is in peace and taken away from among us. For His flesh did not see corruption, nor did it remain in the tomb, which is the place of the dead, as the angel said to the women: 'Whom do you seek, Jesus? He is not here; come and see the place where the Lord was laid.' (Matthew 28:5-6). The Jews understand these and the following things, either in a general sense concerning all the righteous, whose blood Manasseh shed and filled Jerusalem from one end to another, or certainly concerning Isaiah's prophecy of his own death, that he would be sawn in two by a wooden saw, which is a most certain tradition among the Jews. Hence many of our people refer that which is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews about the sufferings of the Saints to the suffering of Isaiah: They were sawn asunder (Heb. XI, 37).
He foretells here the cross of the Master; for he calls the Master Christ “righteous,” he who committed no sin and in whose mouth no deceit was found.… “His grave shall be in peace.” For the righteous has been removed out of the way of injustice. He says this about Christ our Master and simultaneously lets us see the injustice of the murder and the victory that followed the death. For the death effected for us the reconciliation with God. He himself left his grave to ascend to the heavens.
The malice remaining in the world deserves no better than to have those who could be of profit quickly taken away. It is to spare the elect the sight of worse evils that they are removed when the end of time approaches.… It is not our belief, however, that all the elect are taken out of this world, leaving only the perverse to continue on, for sinners would never turn to sorrow and repentance if there were no good examples to motivate them.
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This verse
The righteous and merciful die and the people give it no thought, blind to the fact that God is taking them away in mercy from the evil about to fall on the nation.
“The righteous perisheth,”
The verb ʼâbad means to be lost or to perish. The righteous man dies, and the community loses him.
“and no man layeth it to heart:”
Literally “puts it to the heart”, from sûwm and lêb. Nobody stops to weigh what these deaths mean.
“and merciful men are taken away,”
Men of cheçed, loyal love and kindness, are gathered in (ʼâçaph). This line repeats the first in other words, and the loss falls on the nation’s true guides.
“none considering”
The verb bîyn means to understand or discern. The people see the deaths and miss what God is doing.
“that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.”
The reason God gives: he removes them in mercy before the calamity (raʻ) about to fall on Judah. The words “to come” are added in the KJV to give the sense.
Passage studyIsaiah 57:1–2
The Righteous Taken Away into Peace
Summary
Isaiah grieves that good people are dying and nobody gives it a thought. The righteous and the merciful are taken away one by one, and the people of Judah carry on as before without asking why. God tells us why. He is gathering his faithful ones away from the evil that is about to fall on the nation. The second verse then tells us where they go. They enter into peace and rest in their graves as a tired man rests in his bed, each of them having walked uprightly before God. In these two verses we learn that the death of God’s people is in his hands, that he takes them in mercy, and that their end is peace.
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart
Isaiah speaks these words straight after the LORD’s charge against the leaders of Israel, whom he calls blind watchmen and greedy dogs (Isaiah 56:9–12). Against those careless leaders stand the righteous and the merciful men of this verse, the true guides of the nation, and they are the ones who are dying.
“Perisheth” translates ʼâbad, a verb that properly means to wander away or lose oneself, and so to be lost or to perish. It is used of lost animals and lost property as well as of people. Here it is the death of the righteous, who are lost to the community that once had them. The next line says the same thing in other words: “merciful men are taken away.” In Hebrew these are men of cheçed. The word for men, ʼĕnôwsh, is the plain word for men or people. Cheçed is one of the richest words in the Old Testament, the loyal love and kindness that the KJV renders mercy or lovingkindness and others render steadfast love or faithfulness. Men of cheçed are people whose faithfulness to God shows itself in active kindness to others. “Taken away” is from ʼâçaph, a verb meaning to gather or remove, and the righteous are gathered in.
The sadder half of each line is the people’s response. “No man layeth it to heart” joins the verb sûwm, to put or set, with lêb, the heart, which in Hebrew takes in the mind and the will as well as the feelings. To lay something to heart is to stop and weigh it seriously. “None considering” uses bîyn, to understand or discern. The people see the funerals and go on with their lives, blind to what God is doing in their midst and deaf to the warning in it.
Why does God take the righteous away?
The verse gives the answer in its last line: “the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.” Their death is God’s mercy to them. He removes his faithful servants before the calamity that is coming on the nation, so that they are spared it.
The word for evil, raʻ, is broad, and covers trouble and distress of every kind. Here it points first to the national calamities ahead of Judah: invasion, war and exile, ending in the captivity in Babylon. Isaiah prophesied under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the Assyrian empire threatened Judah and the worship of other gods had worked its way deep into Israel’s worship. The same word also takes in the moral decay that comes before and alongside such judgment. So the righteous are spared both the suffering and the grief of watching wickedness reach its full measure among the people they love.
God has done this before. He kept Noah safe before the flood, and he brought Lot out before Sodom was destroyed. The closest picture is the word the LORD sent to King Josiah: “I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place” (2 Kings 22:20). And the psalm says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15).
A warning to those who are left
What the people treat as an ordinary loss is, in God’s eyes, an act of mercy, and it carries a solemn warning for everyone who remains. The righteous and the merciful are a nation’s true guides. When God gathers them in, a godly presence that held the people back is being withdrawn, and judgment is drawing near. The rest of Isaiah 57 goes on to lay bare the sins of those left behind, their idol worship (Isaiah 57:5) and their spiritual harlotry (Isaiah 57:7). The two ways and their two ends run through all of Scripture: “For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalm 1:6).
Is every godly death a rescue from evil?
This verse gives one of God’s purposes in the death of his people, a tender one, and Scripture shows us others as well. Believers die of natural causes, and some die as martyrs, as Stephen did (Acts 7:54–60). What holds in every case is that God’s purposes in the death of his people are good, even when they are hidden from us, and that for the believer death leads to something better. Paul could say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). So when a godly person dies before hard times come, this verse lets us see mercy in it, and when the reason is hidden, we still know who holds their life.
He shall enter into peace
The second verse follows the righteous past the grave. “He shall enter into peace” pictures peace as a place, a dwelling the righteous man walks into when he leaves this life. The word is shâlôwm, which names completeness, soundness, welfare, peace and safety. Everything that troubled him in a corrupt and endangered nation is behind him, and he is whole and safe.
The verse moves from “he” to “they”, from the righteous man of verse 1 to all who are like him, so the promise belongs to every one of them. “They shall rest in their beds” is a gentle way of speaking about death and burial. The beds are their graves, and death is pictured as lying down to sleep at the end of a long day. The verb nûwach means to settle down, to rest or to be quiet. Death was commonly spoken of as going down to Sheol, and here the righteous dead lie at rest, their toil and suffering over and the coming judgment unable to reach them.
The end of the chapter sets this against the end of the wicked: “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” (Isaiah 57:20–21). The righteous enter peace and rest, and the wicked find neither. The New Testament speaks of the faithful dead in the same way: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours” (Revelation 14:13).
Each one walking in his uprightness
The last phrase describes the people who receive this rest. Nâkôach means what is straight, right and honest, and “walking in his uprightness” describes a whole life lived that way, step after step, in integrity before God.
People ask whether this rest is a reward earned by good deeds. The uprightness here is the shape of a life that flows from a heart given to God, the evidence that a person belongs to him and keeps faith with him, and the rest is God’s gracious gift to those who have walked with him. A life of devotion to God ends in blessing and security, as the psalm says: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever” (Psalm 23:6). God is faithful to those who are faithful to him, and his care for his own is both just and loving.
Is this peace only for after death?
The verse speaks first of the state of the righteous after death, since they enter peace as they are taken away and then rest in their graves. Yet shâlôwm takes in welfare and wholeness in every part of life, and a life walked in uprightness knows a real measure of that peace now, even in trouble. The peace that is made complete when the righteous die has already begun in their life with God.
Christ, the Righteous One, and the peace he gives
Jesus Christ is “the righteous” (1 John 2:1), and in him these verses reach their fullest meaning. The righteous of Isaiah’s day were taken away from the evil to come. Christ went willingly into the full weight of evil, taking the sin of the world on himself at the cross, so that all who believe in him are delivered from the greatest evil to come, the eternal judgment of sin and everlasting separation from God. He walked in uprightness perfectly, tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15), and his righteousness is counted to everyone who believes in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). So the peace promised to the upright is ours through him, resting on his finished work.
His resurrection is the ground of our rest. Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more, and death has no more dominion over him (Romans 6:9). Because of his victory Paul can ask, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). Jesus leaves his own peace with his people (John 14:27), and through the blood of his cross God has made peace and reconciled us to himself (Colossians 1:20). He calls the weary to come to him: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28–30). For those who die in him, the end is a new world where death, sorrow, crying and pain are gone (Revelation 21:4).
The death of the righteous is in God’s hands
These verses give God’s people a way to look at the death of the godly. Grief is right, and Isaiah himself grieves. Yet the death of a righteous man or woman is something God does, in his time and for their good, and it is precious to him. The faithful who die are gathered from the evil to come into peace, and they rest.
The same verses show us who God is. He notices what a careless generation overlooks, he shields his servants from the storm before it breaks, and he speaks a quiet warning to the living through the places the godly leave empty. In Christ, who walked in perfect uprightness and opened the way, a believer’s death is an entry into peace.
Isaiah 57:1 This verse
“The righteous perisheth,”
The verb ʼâbad means to be lost or to perish. The righteous man dies, and the community loses him.
“and no man layeth it to heart:”
Literally “puts it to the heart”, from sûwm and lêb. Nobody stops to weigh what these deaths mean.
“and merciful men are taken away,”
Men of cheçed, loyal love and kindness, are gathered in (ʼâçaph). This line repeats the first in other words, and the loss falls on the nation’s true guides.
“none considering”
The verb bîyn means to understand or discern. The people see the deaths and miss what God is doing.
“that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.”
The reason God gives: he removes them in mercy before the calamity (raʻ) about to fall on Judah. The words “to come” are added in the KJV to give the sense.
Isaiah 57:2
“He shall enter into peace:”
The righteous man goes into shâlôwm, completeness, welfare and safety, as into a dwelling.
“they shall rest in their beds,”
The beds are their graves, and death is pictured as sleep after a long day. The move from “he” to “they” carries the promise to all the righteous, and the verb nûwach means to settle down and rest.
“each one walking in his uprightness.”
Nâkôach is what is straight and right. This describes the whole life of those who receive this rest. The words “each one” are added in the KJV to give the sense.
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