57:4 At whom are you laughing?
At whom are you opening your mouth
and sticking out your tongue?
You are the children of rebels,
the offspring of liars, 1
57:5 you who practice ritual sex 2 under the oaks and every green tree,
who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. 3
1 tn Heb “Are you not children of rebellion, offspring of a lie?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course you are!”
2 tn Heb “inflame yourselves”; NRSV “burn with lust.” This verse alludes to the practice of ritual sex that accompanied pagan fertility rites.
3 sn This apparently alludes to the practice of child sacrifice (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).