Bible Strands
Isaiah 57:1
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous are taken away from the presence of evil.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Isaiah speaks as God's prophet to Judah, pronouncing a contrast between the fate of the righteous and the community's failure to register their loss. The moment is a divine indictment: the people have not only lost their godly but have also lost the capacity to grieve.
The words — אָבָד ('avahad) means total perishing, not mere death but complete ruin (H6). The idiom שָׂם עַל־לֵב (sam 'al-lev) is literally "to put on the heart," i.e., to take something to mind, to attend (H7760 + H5921 + H3820).
The thread — The same pattern of the righteous dying in peace while the community fails to see runs through 2 Kings 22:20 and 2 Chronicles 34:28 (Josiah gathered to his fathers in peace), and the lament in Psalms 12:1 ("the godly are no more") echoes the same absence.
Why it lands — The verse is a charge against the reader's own inattention: the righteous are gone, and you did not notice. It demands that you account for your indifference before you pass judgment on the wicked.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 22:20 ‘Therefore I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.’” So they brought her answer back to the king.
- 2 Chronicles 34:28 ‘Now I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place and on its people.’” So they brought her answer back to the king.
- Psalms 12:1 For the choirmaster. According to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
- Micah 7:2 The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
- Isaiah 42:25 So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.
- Isaiah 47:7 You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.
- 1 Kings 14:13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For this is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will receive a proper burial, because only in him has the LORD, the God of Israel, found any good in the house of Jeroboam.
- 2 Chronicles 35:24 So his servants took him out of his chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. And Josiah was buried in the tomb of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.
- Malachi 2:2 If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.
- 2 Chronicles 32:33 And Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried in the upper tombs of David’s descendants. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem paid him honor at his death. And his son Manasseh reigned in his place.