Jesaja 57:1 Kommentar

The prophet, in this chapter, makes his observations, I. Upon the deaths of good men, comforting those that were taken away in their integrity and reproving those that did not make a due improvement of such providences (Isa 57:1, Isa 57:2). II. Upon the gross idolatries and spiritual whoredoms which the Jews were guilty of, and the destroying judgments they were thereby bringing upon themselves (Isa 57:3-12). III. Upon the gracious returns of God to his people to put an end to their captivity and re-establish their prosperity (Isa 57:13-21).

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, Rom 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, Jer 5:1. The godly ceased, and the faithful failed, Psa 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, Rev 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 (Kg2 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 (Kg2 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, Rev 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.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 57 This chapter contains complaints of the stupidity and idolatry of the people, described in the latter part of the preceding chapter; and some promises of grace to the people of God. The stupidity of the former is observed, Isa 57:1 they not taking notice of the death of good men, nor of impending calamities they were taken from, whose happiness is described, Isa 57:2, then these idolatrous people are summoned before the Lord, Isa 57:3 and are charged with deriding the saints with idolatry and murder, Isa 57:4 and their idolatry is represented under the notion of adultery, attended with very aggravating circumstances, Isa 57:7 and yet these people still entertained presumptuous hopes of happiness, and boasted of, and trusted in, their righteousness and good works, which would be exposed, and be of no advantage to them, Isa 57:10, next follow promises of grace to the saints, that such that trusted in Christ should inherit the holy mountain, Isa 57:13 that the stumblingblock of his people should be removed, Isa 57:14, that he should dwell with the humble and contrite, Isa 57:15, and not be always wroth and contend with them, for a reason given, Isa 57:16 and that though he had smote them, and hid his face from them because of their sins, yet would heal them, lead them, and comfort them, and speak peace unto them, Isa 57:17 and the chapter is concluded with the character of the wicked, and an assurance that there is no peace for them, Isa 57:20.

The righteous perisheth,.... Not eternally; he may fear he shall, by reason of sin and temptation; he may say his strength and hope are perished; and his peace and comfort may perish for a time; but he cannot perish everlastingly, because he is one that believes in Christ, and is justified by his righteousness, from whence he is denominated righteous; and such shall never perish, but have everlasting life: but the meaning is, that he perisheth as to his outward man, or dies corporeally, which is called perishing, Ecc 7:15 and so the Targum renders it, "the righteous die.'' Or it may be rendered, "the righteous man is lost" (b); not to himself, his death is a gain to him; but to the church, and to the world, which yet is not considered: and no man layeth it to heart; takes any notice of it, thinks at all about it, far from being concerned or grieved; instead of that, rather rejoice, and are pleased that they are rid of such persons; which will be the case when the witnesses are slain, Rev 11:10. The Targum is, "and no man lays my fear to heart;'' or on his heart; whereas such providences should lead men to fear the Lord, and seek to him, and serve him, as it did David, Psa 12:1, and merciful men are taken away; or "gathered" (c); out of the world, to their own people, to heaven; these are such who obtain mercy of the Lord, and show mercy to others, holy good men: the former character may respect the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, this his grace implanted in them, discovered by acts of mercy and goodness; for one and the same persons are intended: none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come; that there are evil times coming, great calamities, and sore judgments upon men; and therefore these righteous ones are gathered out of the world, and are gathered home, and safely housed in heaven, that they may escape the evil coming upon a wicked generation; and who yet have no thought about it, nor are they led to observe it as they might, from the removal of good men out of the world; see Kg2 22:20. All this may be applied to the martyrs of Jesus in times of Popish persecution; or to the removal of good men by an ordinary death before those times came. (b) , Sept. (c) "colliguntur", V. L. Munster, Piscator, Cocceius; "congregantur", Pagninus.

The peace of the righteous Man is coming, who, when departing from the apostles and ascending to the Father, said, “My peace I give to you, my peace I bequeath to you.” And when the peace of Christ that surpasses every bodily sense arrives, his apostles will be resting in their beds, and death will become their rest. This shows that martyrs do not perish but conquer and take their rest on an eternal throne. But the Man of peace, whose apostles rest in their beds, walks his own direction, a victor ascending to the Father by the upright path. Then there is what we read in the Septuagint: “The Righteous Man is removed from the face of evil and there will be peace at his grave, which is set apart,” all referring directly to the Messiah, without any admixture from the apostles. For Christ’s grave is in peace and set apart, nor did his body either see corruption or remain in the tomb. He is “free among the dead,” as the angel said to the women: “Jesus whom you seek is not here.”

(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 and wickedness of them that remain behind in the world deserveth that those should quickly be taken away, who by their life might much help us: and for as much as the world draweth towards an end, God's chosen servants are taken out of it, that they fall not into more wicked times: and therefore from hence it cometh that the prophet saith: "The just man doth perish, and there is none that doth ponder it in his heart: and men of mercy are gathered together, because there is none that hath understanding." And yet do I not think that all God's elect servants are so taken out of the world, that none but the wicked remain behind: for sinners would never be converted to the sorrow of true penance, if they had not the examples of some good people to provoke them forward.

The just perishes. Here he shows the difference between those who obey divine counsels and those who do not obey, as to deliverance from dangers. And first, he assigns the difference, second, he sets out the confirmation of each part: but he that puts his trust in me (Isa 57:13). Concerning the first, he does two things: first, he promises rest from dangers to the just; second, he takes away from the impious hope of deliverance: but draw near hither (Isa 57:3). Concerning the first, he does two things. First, he sets out the tribulation of the just, because they are killed without any reckoning: men of mercy are taken away, from the present life and from their land they are taken captive as if they were not just, from before the face of evil, that is, from the presence of the wicked: why look you upon the scorners, and hold your peace when the wicked devours the man that is more just than himself? (Hab 1:13); or, from before the face of evil, that is, lest they be changed to evil: he was taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding (Wis 4:11). Note on the words, the just perishes, and no man lays it to heart (Isa 57:1), that in the passion of Christ, man ought to lay to heart first, love, so as to love him in return: put me as a seal upon your heart (Song 8:6); second, bitterness, so as to sympathize with him: remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood and the gall (Lam 3:19); third, fortitude, so as to suffer bravely: for think diligently upon him that endured for you such opposition from sinners against himself that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds (Heb 12:3); fourth, its benefit, so as to give thanks: I will go up into the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof (Song 7:8).

After mentioning the removal of righteous persons as an awful symptom of the approach of Divine judgments, Isa 57:1, Isa 57:2, the prophet goes on to charge the nation in general with idolatry, and with courting the unprofitable alliance of idolatrous kings, Isa 57:3-12. In opposition to such vain confidence, the prophet enjoins trust in God, with whom the penitent and humble are sure to find acceptance, and from whom they should obtain temporal and spiritual deliverances, Isa 57:13-19. Awful condition of the wicked and finally impenitent, Isa 57:20, Isa 57:21. I shall give Bishop Lowth's translation of the two first verses, and give the substance of his criticisms with additional evidence. Isa 57:1. The righteous man perisheth, and no one considereth;And pious men are taken away, and no one understandeth,That the righteous man is taken away because of the evil. Isa 57:2. He shall go in peace: he shall rest in his bed;Even the perfect man: he that walketh in the straight path.

The righteous perisheth - הצדק אבד hatstsadik abad. There is an emphasis here which seems intended to point out a particular person. See below. Perisheth - As the root אבד abad signifies the straying of cattle, their passing away from one pasture to another, I feel inclined to follow the grammatical meaning of the word "perish," pereo. So the Vulgate, justus periit, from per, By or Through, and eo, to Go. In his death the righteous man may be said to have passed through life, and to have passed by men, i.e., gone or passed before them into the eternal world. A similar mode of speech is used by our Saxon ancestors to express death: he went out of sight; and he went away; and to fare forth, to die. There are very few places in Isaiah where Jesus Christ is not intended; and I am inclined to think that He is intended here, That Just One; and perhaps Stephen had this place in view, when he thus charged the Jews, "Ye denied τον ἁγιον και δικαιον, that Holy and Just One," Act 3:14. That his death was not laid to heart by the wicked Jewish people, needs no proof. Merciful men - If the first refers to Christ, this may well refer to the apostles. and to others of the primitive Christians, who were taken away, some by death and martyrdom, and others by a providential escape from the city that they knew was devoted to destruction. The evil to come - That destruction which was to come upon this disobedient people by the Romans.

THE PEACEFUL DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS FEW: THE UNGODLINESS OF THE MANY: A BELIEVING REMNANT SHALL SURVIVE THE GENERAL JUDGMENTS OF THE NATION, AND BE RESTORED BY HIM WHO CREATES PEACE. (Isa. 57:1-21) no man layeth it to heart--as a public calamity. merciful men--rather, godly men; the subjects of mercy. none considering--namely, what was the design of Providence in removing the godly. from the evil--Hebrew, from the face of the evil, that is, both from the moral evil on every side (Isa 56:10-12), and from the evils about to come in punishment of the national sins, foreign invasions, &c. (Isa 56:9; Isa 57:13). So Ahijah's death is represented as a blessing conferred on him by God for his piety (Kg1 14:10-13; see also Kg2 22:20).

Whilst watchmen and shepherds, prophets and rulers, without troubling themselves about the flock which they have to watch and feed, are thus indulging their own selfish desires, and living in debauchery, the righteous man is saved by early death from the judgment, which cannot fail to come with such corruption as this. "The righteous perisheth, and no man taketh it to heart; and pious men are swept away, without any one considering that the righteous is swept away from misfortune. He entereth into peace: they rest upon their beds, whoever has walked straight before him." With "the righteous" the prophet introduces, in glaring contrast to this luxurious living on the part of the leading men of the nation, the standing figure used to denote the fate of its best men. With this prevailing demoralization and worldliness, the righteous succumbs to the violence of both external and internal sufferings. אבד, he dies before his time (Ecc 7:15); from the midst of the men of his generation he is carried away from this world (Psa 12:2; Mic 7:2), and no one lays it to heart, viz., the divine accusation and threat involved in this early death. Men of piety (chesed, the love of God and man) are swept away, without there being any one to understand or consider that (kı̄ unfolds the object to be considered and laid to heart, viz., what is involved in this carrying away when regarded as a providential event) the righteous is swept away "from the evil," i.e., that he may be saved from the approaching punishment (compare Kg2 22:20). For the prevailing corruption calls for punishment from God; and what is first of all to be expected is severe judgment, through which the coming salvation will force its way. In Isa 57:2 it is intimated that the righteous man and the pious do not lose the blessings of this salvation because they lose this life: for whereas, according to the prophet's watchword, there is no peace to the wicked, it is true, on the other hand, of the departing righteous man, that "he enters into peace" (shâlōm, acc. loci s. status; Ges. 118, 1); "they rest upon their beds," viz., the bottom of the grave, which has become their mishkâb (Job 17:13; Job 21:26), "however has walked in that which lay straight before him," i.e., the one straight plain path which he had set before him (נכחו acc. obj. as in Isa 33:15; Isa 50:10, Ewald, 172, b, from נכח, that which lies straight before a person; whereas נכח with נכח נכחו, signifying probably fixedness, steadiness of look, related to Arab. nkḥ, to pierce, נכה, percutere, is used as a preposition: compare Pro 4:25, לנכח, straight or exactly before him). The grave, when compared with the restlessness of this life, is therefore "peace." He who has died in faith rests in God, to whom he has committed himself and entrusted his future. We have here the glimmering light of the New Testament consolation, that the death of the righteous is better than life in this world, because it is the entrance into peace.