“But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”
My Notes
What Does Isaiah 57:20 Mean?
"But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Isaiah compares the wicked to a sea that can't be calm — constantly agitated, perpetually turbulent, churning up filth from the bottom. The troubled sea doesn't choose to be restless. It's driven by forces it can't control. And the result of the constant churning is mire and dirt — the worst material from the deepest places, surfaced by the agitation.
The metaphor captures the internal state of the wicked: restlessness that produces ugliness. The turbulence isn't productive. It doesn't create something beautiful or useful. It brings up what was hidden at the bottom — the sediment that settled in the deep and should have stayed there.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Does your internal life feel more like a calm sea or a troubled one — and what's driving the turbulence?
- 2.What 'mire and dirt' is being churned up from your depths by restlessness you can't control?
- 3.How does the inability to rest (not just unwillingness) change how you understand the wicked person's condition?
- 4.What would peace from God look like practically — as the calming of your internal sea?
Devotional
The troubled sea. It can't rest. It's always churning. And what it churns up from the bottom is mire and dirt.
Isaiah's metaphor for the wicked isn't dramatic evil — not lightning bolts or dark castles. It's restlessness. The sea that can never be still. The internal agitation that never quiets. The person who's always churning, always turbulent, always driven by forces they can't name and can't control. And the churning produces nothing clean. It brings up the worst material from the deepest places — the mire and dirt that settled at the bottom.
The wicked person's restlessness isn't productive energy. It's not the creative tension that drives achievement. It's the purposeless agitation that stirs up what should stay buried. Old resentments. Hidden bitterness. Settled shame. The material at the bottom of a calm sea stays at the bottom. The material at the bottom of a troubled sea gets surfaced — and dirties everything it touches.
Cannot rest. The inability is the key. The sea doesn't choose turbulence. It's driven by wind and current and forces beyond its surface. The wicked person's restlessness isn't a choice either — it's the consequence of disconnection from the only source of peace. Without God, the internal sea has no anchor, no harbor, no calm. It churns because there's nothing to stop the churning.
The next verse delivers the diagnosis: "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." The troubled sea is the experience. The absence of peace is the cause. And the mire and dirt are the evidence — the visible proof that the internal waters have no rest.
If your internal life feels like a troubled sea — constantly agitated, producing mire and dirt rather than clarity and beauty — Isaiah says the problem isn't the waves. It's the missing peace. And the peace that's missing has a source: the God the wicked have turned from.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest,.... Disturbed by winds, storms, and hurricanes, when its…
But the wicked - All who are transgressors of the law and who remain unpardoned. The design of this is to contrast their…
The body of the people of Israel, in this account of God's dealings with them, is spoken of as a particular person (Isa…
Their peace is contrasted with the eternal unrest of the wicked. For the image cf. Judges 13.
when( for) it cannot rest…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture