Isaiah 57:21
in Isaiah 57“There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
KJV
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
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This verse in Isaiah 57
Commentary
12 notes on this verseAnd he deduces a proposition: there is no peace to the wicked, namely, that they may be saved, above (Isa 48:22) has the same.
This site's exposition
I create the fruit of the lips
on Isaiah 57:19-21
I create the fruit of the lips gives the healing of verse 18 its content, praise created in a mouth that had none, and the fruit itself is named: Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near. The chapter's opening and closing now meet, the righteous man of verse 1 who entered into peace matched here by a peace offered to near and far alike, which the older commentators read toward Ephesians 2:17's peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh, named as a connection rather than pressed as a quotation. Verse 20 answers the offer with its opposite, the wicked like the troubled sea that cannot rest, its waters casting up mire and dirt of their own motion, restless by nature rather than by circumstance. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked closes the chapter exactly where it began, the peace withheld from the wicked the same peace verse 1 said the righteous had already entered.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
A commentator
Augustine of HippoEXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 97:16 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
For that joy that is after the fashion of the world is not true joy. Hear the prophet Isaiah: "There is no joy, says my God, to the wicked." What the wicked call joy is not joy, such as he [David] knew, who made no account of their joy; let us believe him, brothers. He was a man, but he knew both kinds of joy. He certainly knew the joys of the cup, for he was a man; he knew the joy of the table, he knew the joys of marriage, he knew those joys worldly and luxurious.… But you say, I don't see that light which Isaiah saw. Believe and you shall see it. For perhaps you do not have the eye to see it. For it is a certain type of eye by which that beauty is discerned. For just as there is an eye of the flesh by which this light is seen, so there is an eye of the heart by which that joy is perceived. Perhaps your eye is wounded, dimmed, disturbed by passion, by greed, by indulgence, by senseless lust. Your eye is disturbed. You cannot see that light. Believe before you see. You shall be healed, and then you will see.
But the wicked are like a boiling sea that cannot rest, and its waves churn up mire and filth. There is no peace, says God, for the wicked. LXX: But the wicked will waver and cannot rest. There is no joy for the wicked, says the Lord God. But the wicked and the unjust will be tossed like a boiling sea and will never be able to rest.
Some understand this passage specifically about the Savior. But the impious, about whom we have spoken above, he compares to the sea, which can never be at rest, but even in the greatest calm, is tossed with broken waves onto the shores, and its end is mud and trampling.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. They have no share in the peace made by the blood of Christ; they have no true, solid, inward peace of conscience; nor will they have any part in the happiness and prosperity of the church and people of God in the latter day, which will but add to their uneasiness; and will have no lot and portion in the eternal peace which saints enjoy in the world to come; and of this there is the strongest assurance, since God, the covenant God of his people, has said it.
That scripture did also tear and rend my soul in the midst of these distractions, The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
), There is no peace to the wicked, no reconciliation to God (nor can they be upon good terms with him, while they go on still in their trespasses), no quietness or satisfaction in their own mind, no real good, no peace in death, because no hope. My God hath said it, and all the world cannot unsay it, That there is no peace to those that allow themselves in any sin.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
There is no peace, saith my God - For אלהי Elohai, twenty-two MSS. (five ancient) of Kennicott’s, thirty of De Rossi’s, and one ancient of my own, read יהוה Yehovah; the Vulgate, Septuagint, Alex., and Arabic, and three MSS. have both. This verse has reference to the nineteenth. The perseveringly wicked and impenitent are excluded from all share in that peace above mentioned, that reconcilement and pardon which is promised to the penitent only. The forty-eighth chapter ends with the same declaration, to express the exclusion of the unbelievers and impenitent from the benefit of the foregoing promises. - L.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2886: “Restless! Peaceless!” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
AMONG the greatest privileges of the Believer in Christ are those choice blessings, rest and peace. Believing in Christ Jesus unto eternal life, he knows that his sin is pardoned, that he is a child of God, that Omnipotence will preserve him even to the end and that he will, by-and-by, be with Christ where he is not only to behold, but also to share His Glory forever and ever. Consequently his heart is at rest, for he leaves all that concerns him—whether in the present or the future—in the hands of his Heavenly Father, casting all his care upon Him who cares for him. And, therefore, he has peace, perfect peace, in his soul. This peace and rest which the Believer enjoys even here and now will deepen and increase until, in eternity, they will reach their perfection and the child of God will, forever and forevermore, in the blessed state above, be without even the slightest disturbance of heart and will rest in the Presence of God with his glorified spirit as full of joy as it can possibly be. The Apostle Paul truly writes, "We which have believed do enter into rest." But he also adds, just as truly, "There remains therefore a rest to the people of God." These choice privileges of rest and peace belong, however, exclusively to Believers. "The wicked" have no portion in them. They are, according to the testimony of Holy Writ, like the restless sea which is never quite quiet, even in its greatest calm—and is never to be trusted for a resting place, but, ever and anon, is lashed into fury, seething like the contents of a huge cauldron and hurling up from its depths the mire and dirt which have lain there unseen—such is the condition of the unregenerate heart of unrenewed man. There are two things in our text of which I am going to try to speak.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2886: “Restless! Peaceless!” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
AMONG the greatest privileges of the Believer in Christ are those choice blessings, rest and peace. Believing in Christ Jesus unto eternal life, he knows that his sin is pardoned, that he is a child of God, that Omnipotence will preserve him even to the end and that he will, by-and-by, be with Christ where he is not only to behold, but also to share His Glory forever and ever.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
There is no peace - (see the note at Isa 48:22).
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֵ֣ין | ʾein | not | H369 → | 789 times |
| שָׁל֔וֹם | shalom | peace | H7965 → | 236 times |
| אָמַ֥ר | ʾamar | he says | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אֱלֹהַ֖י | ʾelohai | God my | H430 → | 2601 times |
| לָרְשָׁעִֽים׃ ס | lareshaim | [belongs] to <the> wicked [people] | H7563 → | 263 times |
אֵ֣יןnot
ʾeinH369 →789 times
שָׁל֔וֹםpeace
shalomH7965 →236 times
אָמַ֥רhe says
ʾamarH559 →5305 times
אֱלֹהַ֖יGod my
ʾelohaiH430 →2601 times
לָרְשָׁעִֽים׃ ס[belongs] to <the> wicked [people]
lareshaimH7563 →263 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 48:22“There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
it leads to
- Romans 3:17
and the way of peace they have not known.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 15:20–24
A wicked man writhes in pain all his days; only a few years are reserved for the ruthless.
- Luke 19:42
and said, “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.
- Romans 3:17
Through
Isaiah 3:11Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 8:13
Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
- James 2:13
For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Psalms 120:3–4
What will He do to you, and what will be added to you, O deceitful tongue?
- Psalms 28:4
Repay them according to their deeds and for their works of evil. Repay them for what their hands have done; bring back on them what they deserve.
- Ecclesiastes 8:13
Through
Isaiah 59:8The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace.
it leads to
- Isaiah 57:20–21
But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.
- Isaiah 57:20–21
About Isaiah
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 97:16; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2886: “Restless! Peaceless!” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.