| Geneva Study Bible The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away {a} from the evil to come. (a) From the plague that is at hand, and also because God will punish the wicked. Wesley's Notes 57:1 The righteous - Just and holy men. No man - Few or none. Layeth it to heart - Is duly affected with this sad sign of God's displeasure. King James Translators' Notes merciful...: Heb. men of kindness, or, godliness from...: or, from that which is evil Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary CHAPTER 57 Isa 57:1-21. 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. In the midst of the excesses of the unfaithful watchmen (Isa 56:10, 11, 12), most of the few that are godly perish: partly by vexation at the prevailing ungodliness; partly by violent death in persecution: prophetical 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 (2Ki 21:16; Mt 23:29-35, 37; Re 11:17). The Hebrew for "perisheth," and "is taken away," expresses a violent death (Mic 7:2). 1. 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; 57:13). So Ahijah's death is represented as a blessing conferred on him by God for his piety (1Ki 14:10-13; see also 2Ki 22:20). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 57:1,2 The righteous are delivered from the sting of death, not from the stroke of it. The careless world disregards this. Few lament it as a public loss, and very few notice it as a public warning. They are taken away in compassion, that they may not see the evil, nor share in it, nor be tempted by it. The righteous man, when he dies, enters into peace and rest. | 
