Isaiah 1:15

And Moses said to him, “As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to Yahweh; the thunder will cease, and there will be hail no longer, that you may know that the earth is Yahweh’s.

“Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but Yahweh will not answer you in that day.”

And Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

“They looked, but there was none to save; Even to Yahweh, but He did not answer them.

“Will God hear his cry When distress comes upon him?

“Surely God will not listen to an empty cry, Nor will the Almighty perceive it.

If I see wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;

“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me earnestly but they will not find me,

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood,

The expression of their faces answers against them, And they declare their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt out evil on themselves.

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and rinsed away the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,

And I will wait for Yahweh who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope for Him.

Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!

“Behold, you fast for contention and quarreling and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

For your hands are defiled with blood And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken a lie; Your tongue mutters unrighteousness.

There is no one who calls on Your name, Who awakens himself to take hold of You, For You have hidden Your face from us And have melted us into the hand of our iniquities.

For I heard a sound as of a woman in labor pains, The distress as of one giving birth to her first child, The sound of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, Stretching out her hands, saying, “Ah, woe is me, for my soul faints before murderers.”

Therefore thus says Yahweh, “Behold, I am bringing calamity on them which they will not be able to get out of; and they will cry to Me, yet I will not listen to them.

“When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence.”

Zion stretches out her hands; There is no one to comfort her; Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob That the ones round about him should be his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.

They wandered, blind, in the streets; They were defiled with blood So that no one could touch their garments.

“Therefore, I also will do this in wrath: My eye will have no pity, nor will I spare; and they will cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”

“You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with them.”

“Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be inquired by them at all?

“As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says Lord Yahweh, “Go, serve everyone his idols; but after this you will surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols.

“And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted unfaithfully against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword.

They will go with their flocks and herds To seek Yahweh, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.

“I hate, I reject your feasts, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.

Then they will cry out to Yahweh, But He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time Because they have practiced evil deeds.

Then Haggai answered and said, “‘So is this people. And so is this nation before Me,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they bring near to Me there is unclean.

“And it happened that just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says Yahweh of hosts;

“We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him.