Isaiah 1:4-18

⁴Ah, sinful nation! a people laden with iniquity! A race of evil-doers! degenerate children! They have forsaken Jehovah; they have despised the Holy One of Israel; They have gone backward.

⁵Where can ye be smitten again, Since ye renew your rebellion? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint;

⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it; It is all bruises, and stripes, and flesh wounds, Neither pressed, nor bound up, nor softened with ointment.

⁷Your country is desolate; Your cities are burnt with fire; Your ground, strangers devour it before your eyes; It is become desolate, destroyed by an enemy.

⁸And the daughter of Zion is left as a shed in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city.

⁹Had not Jehovah of hosts left us a small remnant, We had soon become as Sodom; We had been like to Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear ye the word of Jehovah, ye princes of Sodom! Give ear to the instruction of our God, ye people of Gomorrah!

¹¹What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah; I am satiated with burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; In the blood of bullocks and of lambs and of goats I have no delight.

¹²When ye come to appear before me, Who hath required this of you, to tread my courts?

¹³Bring no more false oblations! Incense is an abomination to me, The new moon also, and the sabbath, and the calling of the assembly; Iniquity and festivals I cannot endure.

¹⁴Your new moons and your feasts my soul hateth; They are a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; Yea, when ye multiply prayers, I will not hear: Your hands are full of blood!

¹⁶Wash you; make you clean; Put away your evil doings from before mine eyes;

¹⁷Cease to do evil; Learn to do well; Seek justice; relieve the oppressed; Defend the fatherless; plead for the widow!

¹⁸Come, now, and let us argue together, saith Jehovah. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they be red as crimson, they shall be like wool.