The Army and Navy Hymnal/Readings/True Religion
SELECTION 28
TRUE RELIGION
THUS saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these.
For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; If ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
If ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood,
Neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:
Then will I cause you to dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, even for evermore.
Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal,
And walk after other gods that ye have not known,
And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered?
Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith the Lord.
WHAT unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith the Lord:
I have had enough of the burnt-offering of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;
And I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me;
New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth;
They are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them.
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.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;
Cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed,
Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
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.