You can try to wash away your guilt with a strong detergent. You can use as much soap as you want. But the stain of your guilt is still there for me to see,” ¹  says the Lord God. ² 

Let darkness and the deepest shadow ¹  claim it; ²  let a cloud settle on it; let whatever blackens the day ³  terrify it!

The Lord who commands armies planned it – to dishonor the pride that comes from all her beauty, ¹  to humiliate all the dignitaries of the earth.

so that he ¹  may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. ² 

Hide your face ¹  from my sins! Wipe away ²  all my guilt!

For ¹  then you will lift up your face without ²  blemish; ³  you will be securely established ⁴  and will not fear.

to obey ¹  this command ²  without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ

Let them disappear ¹  like water that flows away! ²  Let them wither like grass! ³ 

You will no longer see a defiant ¹  people whose language you do not comprehend, ²  whose derisive speech you do not understand. ³ 

¹ Come, let’s consider your options,” ²  says the Lord. “Though your sins have stained you like the color red, you can become ³  white like snow; though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet, you can become ⁴  white like wool. ⁵ 

“I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself; no one from the nations joined me. I stomped on them ¹  in my anger; I trampled them down in my rage. Their juice splashed on my garments, and stained ²  all my clothes.

You will become fuel for the fire – your blood will stain the middle of the land; ¹  you will no longer be remembered, for I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ¹  to God, and everyone ²  must turn from their ³  evil way of living ⁴  and from the violence that they do. ⁵ 

suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. ¹  By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, ²  they are stains and blemishes, indulging ³  in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you.

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ²  Have mercy on me, O God, because of ³  your loyal love! Because of ⁴  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ⁵ 

The Son is ¹  the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, ²  and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ³