Isaiah 57:4-5

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 

[57:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Are you not children of rebellion, offspring of a lie?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course you are!”

[57:5]  ² tn Heb “inflame yourselves”; NRSV “burn with lust.” This verse alludes to the practice of ritual sex that accompanied pagan fertility rites.

[57:5]  ³ sn This apparently alludes to the practice of child sacrifice (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).