And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 1:15 Go To Isaiah 1
Basil the Great
AD 379
Let those who do nothing right in life and think they are justified by the length of their prayer listen to these words. For the words of the prayer are not useful by themselves but only when they are offered up with earnest intent. Now the Pharisee also seemed to multiply his supplication. But what does the Scripture say? “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus to himself,” not to God, for he turned back toward himself, since at all events he was in the sin of arrogance.
