Isaiah 1:5-18

⁵Are you wanting to be punished? Are you going to continue to rebel? The whole of your head is damaged, and your heart is totally giving out.

⁶You're injured from head to toe, bruised and sore, with open wounds that haven't been cleaned or bandaged or treated with olive oil.

⁷Your country has been devastated, your towns burned down, your fields stripped bare by foreigners right in front of you, as they turn it all into a wasteland.

⁸The daughter of Zion is left like a shack in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under attack.

⁹If the Lord Almighty hadn't let a few of us survive, we would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah.

¹⁰Listen to what the Lord has to say, you rulers of Sodom! Pay attention to the instructions of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

¹¹What use are all your many sacrifices to me? asks the Lord. I am sick and tired of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of sacrificial animals. I don't delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats!

¹²When you come to appear before me in worship, who asked you to proudly tramp around my courts?

¹³Don't bring me any more meaningless offerings; your incense is offensive to me. Your new moon festivals and Sabbath observations and your calling of special religious meetings—I can't stand them because they're evil, as are your solemn assemblies.

¹⁴I detest your new moon and yearly festivals with my whole being! They've become just a burden to me—I can't bear them anymore!

¹⁵When you hold up your hands to me in prayer, I'll look away. Even though you pray many prayers, I won't pay attention to them, because your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Wash yourselves and clean yourselves up. Get rid of your sins—I don't want to see them! Stop doing evil!

¹⁷Learn to do good; strive for justice, condemn those who oppress others; support the rights of orphans, take up cases to defend widows.

¹⁸Come on, let's argue this out, says the Lord. Even though your sins are like scarlet, they will become white like snow. Even though they are red like crimson, they will become like wool.