Come Now, Let Us Reason Together
10 Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. 12 When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations— I can’t stand evil assemblies. 14 My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. 17 Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.” 18 “Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword; for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.”
God says he cannot bear the worship he himself commanded, and names what is wrong with it in one clause.
Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
The comparison of the previous verse becomes an address. They were nearly Sodom in their punishment; now they are called Sodom to their faces, and the audience is the leadership of a nation with a functioning temple.
“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.
Everything rejected in the next four verses was commanded in the law. Burnt offerings, incense, new moons, Sabbaths, appointed feasts, and prayer with lifted hands — this is not a list of superstitions but the worship God himself instituted, and he says he is tired of it.
My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.
The possessive is doing the work. Your feasts — they had been his, and something has transferred the ownership. The complaint is never that the calendar lapsed; attendance was excellent.
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
The last clause is the diagnosis and it is the only one offered. The hands lifted in the standard posture of prayer are the same hands, and what is on them is what stops the prayer. Nothing here suggests the ritual was performed badly.
16 Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. 17 Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”
Nine imperatives, and not one of them concerns the sanctuary. The washing asked for is not ritual — it is answered immediately by conduct, and the four named beneficiaries are the four the law had always specified as having no standing in court.
Learn to do well is the phrase to notice. It assumes the skill is not native and has to be acquired, which is a more patient thing to say than the chapter's tone up to here would predict.
“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
The most famous verse in the chapter, and it arrives directly after the most damning. The invitation is to argue the case out — the verb belongs to the courtroom the chapter opened in, and the plaintiff is inviting the defendants to talk.
Scarlet and crimson were fast dyes. They were chosen because they did not wash out, which is the whole point of the comparison.
19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword; for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.”
The offer is genuine and it is not unconditional, and the two verbs on the first side are the two the chapter has said were missing.
settled What this mark means