Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!
Parallel translations
- WEB Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.
- KJV Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
- NKJV “Washyourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil,
- NASB ¶“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil,
- NLT Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God commands them to wash, become clean, and cease doing evil. He calls for genuine repentance, not mere ritual.
Overview
The 'washing' is moral and spiritual, a turning away from wickedness God can see. This is the negative side of repentance, abandoning evil, paired with the positive call that follows. Ultimately such cleansing is granted by God Himself through the Spirit and the work of Christ (Ezekiel 36:25-26).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- 1 Pet 3:11He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
- Isa 55:6–7Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- 1 Pet 2:1Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.
- 2 Cor 7:1Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- Jas 4:8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Ezek 18:30–31Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.
- Titus 2:11–14For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone.
- Rev 7:14“Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
- Matt 3:8Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance.
- Zech 1:3–4So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’
- Jer 4:14Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
- Isa 52:11Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- Amos 5:15Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
- Eph 4:22–29to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
- Acts 22:16And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name.’
- Ps 26:6I wash my hands in innocence that I may go about Your altar, O LORD,
- Rom 12:9Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.
- Jer 25:5The prophets told you, ‘Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.
- Ps 37:27Turn away from evil and do good, so that you will abide forever.
- Job 11:13–14As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
- Ps 34:14Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 1:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.