“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.”
My Notes
What Does Isaiah 1:15 Mean?
God speaks through Isaiah with devastating words to religious people: when you spread forth your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes. When you pray, I will not hear. The most religious act — prayer — is being rejected.
The reason: your hands are full of blood. The people are praying with hands that have committed injustice, oppression, and violence. They are lifting bloody hands to a holy God and expecting him to respond.
"Yea, when ye make many prayers" — the volume of prayer does not compensate for the condition of the hands. More prayers, louder prayers, longer prayers — none of it penetrates when injustice is present.
This verse is not about God being unwilling to hear prayer in general. It is about God refusing to hear prayers from people who practice injustice while performing religion. The problem is not the prayer. It is the hypocrisy — the disconnect between worship and life.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How does God refusing to hear prayer challenge comfortable religious practice?
- 2.What does 'hands full of blood' look like in modern terms — what injustices accompany religious performance?
- 3.How do you reconcile this verse with the promise that God hears prayer?
- 4.What needs to change in your life before your prayers can be fully received?
Devotional
When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. God is refusing to look at their prayers. The people are praying — hands raised, words flowing — and God is looking away.
Your hands are full of blood. That is the reason. The same hands lifted in worship are hands stained with injustice. The prayers and the oppression come from the same person. And God says: I see the blood, not the prayer.
Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. More prayer does not fix this. You cannot out-pray injustice. You cannot compensate for violence with volume. The solution is not more worship. It is just living.
This is one of the most uncomfortable verses in Scripture for religious people. It says that God can refuse to hear prayer — not because prayer is wrong, but because the life behind the prayer contradicts everything the prayer claims.
Isaiah 1:17 provides the remedy: learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow. God does not want more prayers. He wants just hands.
What is on your hands when you lift them in prayer?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And when ye spread forth your hands,.... That is, in prayer, this being a prayer gesture: hence the Targum paraphrases…
Ye spread forth your hands - This is an expression denoting the act of supplication. When we ask for help, we naturally…
Here, I. God calls to them (but calls in vain) to hear his word, Isa 1:10. 1. The title he gives them is very strange;…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture