Isaiah 1:15

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ¹ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ² 

Isaiah 58:7

58:7 I want you ³  to share your food with the hungry

and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. ⁴ 

When you see someone naked, clothe him!

Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! ⁵ 

[1:15]  ¹ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ² sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[58:7]  ³ tn Heb “Is it not?” The rhetorical question here expects a positive answer, “It is!”

[58:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and afflicted [ones], homeless [ones] you should bring [into] a house.” On the meaning of מְרוּדִים (mÿrudim, “homeless”) see HALOT 633 s.v. *מָרוּד.

[58:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “and from your flesh do not hide yourself.”