Isaiah 1:11-15

The Israelites tended to fall into a pattern of thinking that religious ritual and their pagan neighbors’ worship encouraged. They thought that going through the motions of worshipping God exactly as He specified satisfied Him. They forgot that God intended their ceremonies to be symbolic of their attitude toward Him. Their attitude to Him was more important than their flawless performance of worship rituals. Even their prayers would be ineffective if their attitude to God was not right (Isaiah 1:15). We have the same problem today. This passage repeats descriptions of the Israelites’ worship so often that the reader gets tired of them, just as God did. Hands full of bloodshed (Isaiah 1:15) is a figure of guilt for abusing others. [Note: Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah , 1:95.]