Isaiah 43:26

¹⁸“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says the LORD: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear, and say, “That is true.”

³³Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.

²Let my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.

²¹Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me? ²²For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord GOD. ²³“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways, ²⁴a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs the wind in her craving. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her. ²⁵“Keep your feet from being bare, and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.’ ²⁶As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so the house of Israel is ashamed— they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, ²⁷who tell wood, ‘You are my father,’ and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me,’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face, but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us!’ ²⁸“But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble, for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah. ²⁹“Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed against me,” says the LORD. ³⁰“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. ³¹Generation, consider the LORD’s word. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We have broken loose. We will come to you no more’? ³²“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number. ³³How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways. ³⁴Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You didn’t find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things. ³⁵“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

¹“Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgment.

³For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

⁷“Now brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me. ⁸Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?

⁸He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.

¹⁵He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.