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.
In the midst of the excesses of the unfaithful watchmen (Isaiah 56:10-12), most of the few that are godly perish: partly by vexation at the prevailing ungodliness; partly by violent death in persecution: prophetic of the persecuting times of Manasseh, before God's judgments in causing the captivity in Babylon; and again those in the last age of the Church, before the final judgments on the apostasy (2 Kings 21:16; Matthew 23:29-35; Matthew 23:37; Revelation 11:7-11; Revelation 11:17). The Hebrew for "perisheth" (abad), and that for "is taken away" (asaph), expresses a violent death (Micah 7:2).
The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart - as a public calamity.
Merciful men - literally, men of mercy (chesed); godly men; the subjects of mercy.
None considering - namely, what was the design of Providence in removing the godly.
That the righteous is taken away from the evil (to come) - Hebrew, from the face of the evil; i:e., both from the moral evil on every side (Isaiah 56:10-12), and from the evils about to come in punishment of the national sins, foreign invasion, etc. (Isaiah 56:9; Isaiah 57:13. So Ahijah's death is represented as a blessing conferred on him by God for his piety (1 Kings 14:10-13: see also, in the case of Josiah, 2 Kings 22:20).