A Gracious Promise to the Party of the Pious. This oracle is modelled on Isaiah 40, though the way is figurative. Yahweh commands that the Way of His adherents be raised and freed from obstacles. He, the High and Lofty (cf. Isaiah 6:1), who, unlike the perishing idols, sits upon a throne of eternity, dwells also with the (politically) crushed and lowly, whose fortunes He will revive. He will not be angry for ever, lest all creation should perish. Because of Israel's iniquity He smote him, and hid Himself from him, so that he turned aside to his own ways, which ways Yahweh, Himself unseen, has watched. (I have seen his ways should be joined to Isaiah 57:17.) He will heal and give rest to and console him. For his mourners He creates the fruit of the lips, i.e. thanksgiving, and for the Jew at home or m exile, far off or near, He will create peace, i.e. prosperity. But the wicked, like the uptossed sea, shall have no peace.
Isaiah 57:15. in the high and lofty place: render, on high as the lofty one.
Isaiah 57:16. Spirit, soul: mean no more than living creature.
Isaiah 57:19. Peace: object to create. The sentence is not an exclamation.