Isaiah 1:15-31

When you stretch out your hands to pray, I will hide my eyes from you. Repeat your prayers all you want, but I will not listen, for your hands are stained with innocent blood. Wash yourselves and make yourselves clean. Remove your evil actions from my sight and stop sinning! Learn what it means to do what is good by seeking righteousness and justice! Rescue the oppressed. Uphold the rights of the fatherless and defend the widow’s cause. Come now and let’s deliberate over the next steps to take together.” YAHWEH promises you over and over: “Though your sins stain you like scarlet, I will whiten them like bright, new-fallen snow! Even though they are deep red like crimson, they will be made white like wool! If you have a willing heart to let me help you, and if you will obey me, you will feast on the blessings of an abundant harvest. But if you are stubborn and refuse to obey, the sword will eat you instead.” The mouth of YAHWEH has spoken. Look how the once faithful city has become as unfaithful as a prostitute! She who was once the “Center of Justice,” where righteousness made its home, is now the dwelling place of murderers! She was once like sterling silver, now only mixture; once so pure, now diluted like watered-down wine. Your rulers are rebellious and companions of crooks. They are self-centered racketeers who love a bribe and who chase after payoffs. They don’t defend the fatherless or consider the rights of a helpless widow. Therefore, here is what the Sovereign One, the Lord God of Angel Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, decrees: “Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries and avenge myself on my foes! I will put my fiery hand upon you and purify you with fire into something clean.” “I will restore deliverers as in former times and your wise counselors as at the beginning. Only then will you be called the Righteous City and the Faithful City!” Yes, Zion will be redeemed with justice and her repentant converts with righteousness. There will be a shattering of rebels and sinners together, and those who forsake the Lord will be consumed. You will reap shame from the idols you once delighted in and you will be humiliated by your cultic sacred groves, where you chose to worship. You will be like an oak tree with faded, fallen leaves and like a withered, waterless garden. The “powerful elite” will become like kindling and their evil deeds like sparks—both will burn together and no one will be able to put out the fire.