Isaiah 1:15

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — YHWH addresses Judah and Jerusalem in a divine courtroom, rejecting their ritual observance as hollow. The moment is a verdict: their worship is not merely insufficient but actively offensive.

The words — פָּרַשׂ (pāraś, H6566) means "spread out," the open-palmed gesture of supplication. The same כַּפַּיִם (kāp̄ayim, H3709) that are spread in prayer are "covered with blood," so the body part is both instrument and evidence.

The thread — The pattern recurs in Micah 3:4 (God hides His face and will not answer), Isaiah 59:2 (sins hide His face from you), and Proverbs 1:28 (they call, He will not answer).

Why it lands — It refuses to let a reader separate the sanctuary from the street: the hands that pray must be the hands that have stopped killing.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וּבְפָרִשְׂכֶ֣םu./ve./fa.ris./Khemand/ when/ spread out/ you כַּפֵּיכֶ֗םka.pei./Khemhands/ your אַעְלִ֤ים'a'.LimI will hide עֵינַי֙'ei.Na/ieyes/ myמִכֶּ֔םmi./Kemfrom/ youגַּ֛םgamalso כִּֽי־ki-for תַרְבּ֥וּtar.Buyou will multiply תְפִלָּ֖הte.fi.Lahprayer אֵינֶ֣נִּי'ei.Ne./ninot/ I שֹׁמֵ֑עַsho.Me.a'[will be] hearing יְדֵיכֶ֖םye.dei./Khemhands/ your דָּמִ֥יםda.Mimblood<s>מָלֵֽאוּ׃ma.Le.'uthey are full

King James Version

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.

Cross-references

Micah 3:4 Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
Proverbs 1:28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
Zechariah 7:13 And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
Jeremiah 7:8 But look, you keep trusting in deceptive words to no avail.
Psalms 66:18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
Isaiah 58:7 Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Jeremiah 14:12 Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
Luke 13:25 After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’
1 Kings 8:22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,