2. (a) When do the words of Isaiah chapter 57 seem to apply? (b) What is the situation of righteous ones in Isaiah’s day?

² This part of Isaiah’s prophecy seems to apply in Isaiah’s own day. Consider how entrenched wickedness has now become: “The righteous one himself has perished, but there is no one taking it to heart. And men of loving-kindness are being gathered to the dead, while no one discerns that it is because of the calamity that the righteous one has been gathered away.

Isaiah 57:1,

If a righteous man falls, no one cares. His untimely death goes unnoticed.