Isaiah 1:14-23

¹⁴I hate your new moons and your appointed feasts; they are a burden to me; I am tired of enduring them.

¹⁵So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even though you offer many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Wash, cleanse yourselves; remove the evil of your deeds from my sight; stop being evil;

¹⁷learn to do good; seek justice, make straight the oppression, give justice to the fatherless, defend the widow.”

¹⁸“Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh; “though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white like snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.

¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land,

²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, the sword will devour you,” for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.

²¹How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She who was full of justice—she was full of righteousness, but now she is full of murderers.

²²Your silver has become impure, your wine mixed with water.

²³Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes and runs after payoffs. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the widow's legal plea come before them.