Add parallel Print Page Options

15 When you stretch out your hands,[a]
    I will turn away my eyes from you.
Even if you pray endlessly,
    I will not listen,
    for your hands are covered with blood.
16 Wash yourselves and become clean;
    remove your evil deeds
    far from my sight.
Cease to do evil
17     and learn to do good.
Pursue justice and rescue the oppressed;
    listen to the plea of the orphan[b]
    and defend the widow.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 1:15 Hands: the habitual manner of praying was to extend the hands with the palms open upwards.
  2. Isaiah 1:17 Orphan, widow: these were the people most defenseless and most exposed to injustice in the social order of the time. This is why they are constantly mentioned in ethical passages of the Bible.