John Gill Commentary Isaiah 57

The righteous perishes
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 where he is denominated righteous; and such shall never perish, but have everlasting life: but the meaning is, that he perishes as to his outward man, or dies corporeally, which is called perishing, (Ecclesiastes 7:15) and so the Targum renders it,``the righteous die.'' Or it may be rendered, "the righteous man is lost" <sup>F2</sup> ; 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 lays 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, (Revelation 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, (Psalms 12:1) :

and merciful men are taken away ;
or "gathered" ^F3 ; 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 (2 Kings 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.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: (dba qyduh) , (apwleto) , Sept.
• F3: (Mypoan) "colliguntur", V. L. Munster, Piscator, Cocceius; "congregantur", Pagninus.

He shall enter into peace
Or "shall go in peace" ^F4 ; the righteous man goes in peace now; he has peace from his justifying righteousness; he has peace through believing in Christ; he has peace in, though not from, his obedience and holiness of life; and he has peace in the midst of the many trials he is exercised with; and he goes out of the world in peace, with great serenity and tranquillity of mind, as Simeon desired he might, having views of an interest in Christ, and in the glories of another world;

and as soon as he is departed from hence he enters into peace, into a state where there is everything that makes for peace; there is the God of peace; there is Christ, the Prince of peace; there is the Spirit, whose fruit is peace; and there are the angels of peace, and good men, the sons of peace: and there is nothing there to disturb their peace, no sin within, nor Satan's temptations without, nor any wicked men to annoy and molest them; and there is everything that can come under the notion of peace and prosperity; for the happiness of this state is signified by riches, by glory and honour, by a kingdom, and by a paradise; and into this state the righteous may be said to enter immediately upon death, which is no other than stepping out of one world into another; and this they enter into as into a house, as it really is, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; and, entering into it, they take possession of it, and for ever enjoy it:

they shall rest in their beds ,
their souls in the bosom of Abraham, in the arms of Jesus; their bodies in the grave, which is a bed to them, where they lie down and sleep, till they are awaked at the resurrection; and where they rest from all toil and labour, from all diseases and distempers, pains and tortures, and from all persecuting enemies; see (Revelation 14:13) :

each one walking in his uprightness ;
in the righteousness of Christ, and in the shining robes of immortality and glory, and in perfect purity and holiness: or, "before him" ^F5 ; before God, in the sight or presence of him, and by sight, and not by faith, as now. Though this is by some considered as the character of the righteous man in life, so Aben Ezra; and then the sense is, that he that walks in his uprightness, in the uprightness or righteousness of Christ, and by faith on him; that walks uprightly in his life and conversation before God, and "before himself"; following the rule before him, and walking according to the rule of the Gospel, and in the ordinances of it blameless, when he comes to die, he enters into peace and rest. And to this sense is the Targum, which paraphrases it, ``that are doers of his law;'' see (Romans 2:13) . In the Talmud ^F6 it is interpreted of that peace and happiness righteous men enter into when they die.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: (Mwlv awby) "ibit in pace", Gataker.
• F5: (wxwkn) "coram eo", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin; "ante se", Cocceius, Vitringa.
• F6: T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 104. 1.

But draw near hither
The death of the righteous, and their happiness after it, being observed: the wicked, who thought themselves safe from danger, and the happier that they were rid of the righteous, those witnesses and prophets which had tormented them, and therefore rejoiced on that account, are here summoned to the divine tribunal, to hear their character, and receive their doom, as follows: you sons of the sorceress ;
the children of Jezebel, the witch, and the prophetess that taught the servants of the Lord to commit fornication, and bewitched with her witchcrafts the sons of the apostate church of Rome; by whose sorceries all nations have been deceived, and of which she repents not, (Revelation 2:20) (9:21) (18:23) : the seed of the adulterer and of the whore ;
of the great whore of Babylon, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication; and whose subjects and children are the seed of this whore, and the sons of this idolatrous church: or, "that commits whoredom" ^F7 ; which aggravates the character, that they were not only the children of adulterous persons, but committed whoredom themselves.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: (hnztw) "qua scortata est", Piscator; "quod scortaris", Junius & Tremellius; "qui scortaris", Cocceius.

Against whom do you sport yourselves ? &c.] Is it against the ministers of the Gospel, the prophets of the Lord, the true and faithful witnesses, over whose dead bodies you triumph? know that it is not so much against them, as against the Lord himself, whose ministers, prophets, and witnesses they are; see (1 Thessalonians 4:8) :

"against whom make you a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?" gestures used by way of scorn and derision; see (Psalms 22:7Psalms 22:13) .

So the Papists open their mouths, and draw out their tongues, in gibes and jeers, reproaches and calumnies, against the true Christians, calling and despising them as heretics and schismatics; which abuse and ill usage of them will be resented another day.

The Targum is, ``before whom do you open your mouth, and multiply to speak things?'' as antichrist is said to have a mouth open, speaking great things and blasphemy against God, his name, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven, (Revelation 13:5Revelation 13:6) :

are you not children of transgression ; given up to all manner of sin and wickedness; or children of the wicked one, as the Targum, either of Satan, or of the man of sin; or, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "children of perdition"; of the same character, complexion, and religion, as the son of perdition is:

"a seed of falsehood"; or a lie, given to lying; to believe a lie, and to speak lies in hypocrisy; professing a false religion; embracing false doctrines; a spurious breed, and not the sons of the true church of Christ.

Inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree
Or, "inflamed with or among oaks" ^F8 ; with images made of oaken wood, such as the Papists worship, (Revelation 9:20) expressing a burning zeal for their idols, and being as hot upon them, as impure persons burn in lust one towards another: or "with mighty ones" ^F9 ; the kings and potentates of the earth, with whom the whore of Rome commits her fornication, even in every flourishing kingdom and state in Europe, compared to a green tree; alluding to the custom of the Heathens, who used to set up their idols under green trees and groves, and there worship them, which were pleasing to the flesh; and I wish, says Musculus on the text, there were no instances of this kind in the Papacy.

Slaying the children in the valleys, under the clifts of the rocks ?
this may refer to the cruelty of these idolatrous worshippers; for, as they burn with zeal to their idols, so with rage against those that oppose their idolatrous practices, not sparing men, women, and children; and such butcheries have been committed in many places, and especially in the "valleys" of Piedmont; nor could the cragged rocks secure them from their falling a sacrifice unto them. Or it may intend the ruining and destroying the souls of such, who, before they fell into their hands, were innocent as children, by their superstitious worship and idolatry, committed in low and dark places, under cragged rocks, and in caves and dens; such as the above mentioned commentator speaks of, a very dark one, under a prominent rock, in which the ignorant and unhappy people, some time ago, worshipped and invoked a certain blessed saint, he knew not who, which could scarce be looked into without horror; and such was the cave in which they worshipped the angel Michael.

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: (Mylab Mymxnh) "inflammati inter quercus", Gataker; "incalescentes, [vel] incalescitis inter quercus, [vel] ulmos", Vatablus.
• F9: "In potentibus", Cocceius.