Isaiah 57:2

Render with R.V. (and marg.) He entereth into peace; they rest in their beds, each one that walked straight before him. The "peace" and "rest" spoken of are those of the grave (Job 3:13 ff.), the "bed" is the bier or coffin; cf. 2 Chronicles 16:14; Ezekiel 32:25. The same word is used of the sarcophagus in the Phœnician inscription of Eshmunazar ("the lid of this bed").

"After life's fitful fever he sleeps well."

The same feeling is expressed with great pathos in an eloquent passage of the book of Job (Isaiah 3:13 ff.). It is a sentiment that has appealed to the human mind in all ages; but to the O.T. believers it brought no relief from the shuddering recoil from death expressed in other passages, nowhere more forcibly than in the words of Job himself.

each one that walked, &c. i.e. every one who led a simple, straightforward, upright life; cf. Proverbs 4:25-27. The clause is an extension of the subject of the sentence.