Isaiah 57 · a question people ask
Who is speaking in this chapter?
The WEB's quotation marks show the voices. 57:1-2 stand outside them. From 57:3 to 57:13 one speech runs in quotation marks, and its speaker isn't named there: he says "But draw near here" (57:3), "and have not remembered me" (57:11), and "he who takes refuge in me will possess the land, and will inherit my holy mountain" (57:13) (tap takes refuge); the chapter on Isaiah 56 follows my holy mountain through the book. Then "He will say" (57:14), and the verse doesn't say who. 57:15 names the next speaker, "the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy" (57:15), and his words run to the end of 57:19, with "says the LORD" (57:19) just before their last words, "and I will heal them" (57:19). The chapter has the divine name only there. 57:20 stands outside the quotation marks again, and the last verse is "There is no peace", says my God, "for the wicked" (57:21). The chapter doesn't say who says my God, and these notes don't either. Chapter 48 ends with the same words and "says the LORD" (Isaiah 48:22).
The verses
“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. He enters into peace. They rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness. “But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes.”
““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?”
“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.” He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.” For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “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.”
“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.” But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud. “There is no peace”, says my God, “for the wicked.””