Daily Meditation
17 learn to do well;
seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the
widow.
Today’s Reading
Isaiah
Chapter 1
Bring no more vain
oblations
1 The vision of
Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days
of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knoweth his owner, and
the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not
consider. 4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have
provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5 Why should ye be
stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and
the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is
no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have
not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 7 Your
country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers
devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a
garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 9 Except the Lord of hosts had left
unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have
been like unto Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of
the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of
Gomorrah. 11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith
the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and
I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12 When ye
come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my
courts? 13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the
new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is
iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15 And
when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye
make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make
you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do
evil; 17 learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the
fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let
us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 but if ye
refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the
Lord hath spoken it.
21 How is the
faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged
in it; but now murderers. 22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with
water: 23 thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one
loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither
doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
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