Isaiah 1:4-18

⁴Woe! sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupt: they have forsaken the Lord, they have incensed the Holy One of Israel, they are departed backward.

⁵Why will ye be stricken yet more? that ye increase the revolt? every head is sick, and every heart is faint.

⁶From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, nor bound up, nor mollified with oil.

⁷Your country is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire; your soil—in your presence, strangers devour it, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

⁸And left is the daughter of Zion as a hut in a vineyard, as a lodge in a cucumber field, as a besieged city.

⁹Unless the Lord of hosts had left unto us a remnant ever so small, like Sodom should we have been, unto Gomorrah should we have been compared.

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom: give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

¹¹For what serveth me the multitude of your sacrifices? saith the Lord: I am sated with the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fatted beasts; and the blood of bullocks, and of sheep, and of he-goats, I do not desire.

¹²When ye come to appear in my presence—who hath required this at your hand, to tread down my courts?

¹³Continue no more to bring an oblation of deceit; incense of abomination is it unto me: new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies—I cannot bear misdeed with festive gathering.

¹⁴Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are become a burden unto me; I am weary to bear them,

¹⁵And when ye spread forth your hands, I will withdraw my eyes from you; yea, when ye make ever so many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil;

¹⁷Learn to do well; seek for justice, relieve the oppressed, do justice to the fatherless, plead for the widow.

¹⁸Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins should be as scarlet, they shall become white as the snow; though they should be red like crimson, they shall become like wool.