John Chrysostom, on Isa 1:16

“Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely,”

“Let us become as clean as is possible. Let us wash away our sins. And the prophet teaches us how to wash them away, saying, "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away from my eyes the evil of your souls." … See that we must first cleanse ourselves, and then God cleanses us. He first said, "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean," and then said, "I will make you white." … The power of repentance is then tremendous as it makes us white as snow and wool, even though sin had stained our souls.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.