Passage
Wash you, make you cleane: take away the euill of your workes from before mine eyes: cease to doe euill. Learne to doe well: seeke iudgement, relieue the oppressed: iudge the fatherlesse and defend the widowe. Come nowe, and let vs reason together, sayth the Lord: though your sinnes were as crimsin, they shalbe made white as snowe: though they were red like skarlet, they shalbe as wooll. If ye consent and obey, ye shall eate the good things of the land. But if ye refuse and be rebellious, ye shalbe deuoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Nearby Context
Isaiah 1:14 My soule hateth your newe moones and your appointed feastes: they are a burden vnto me: I am weary to beare them.
Isaiah 1:15 And when you shall stretch out your hands, I wil hide mine eyes from you: and though ye make many prayers, I wil not heare: for your hands are full of blood.
Isaiah 1:16 Wash you, make you cleane: take away the euill of your workes from before mine eyes: cease to doe euill.
Isaiah 1:17 Learne to doe well: seeke iudgement, relieue the oppressed: iudge the fatherlesse and defend the widowe.
Isaiah 1:18 Come nowe, and let vs reason together, sayth the Lord: though your sinnes were as crimsin, they shalbe made white as snowe: though they were red like skarlet, they shalbe as wooll.
Isaiah 1:19 If ye consent and obey, ye shall eate the good things of the land.
Isaiah 1:20 But if ye refuse and be rebellious, ye shalbe deuoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Isaiah 1:21 Howe is the faithfull citie become an harlot? it was full of iudgement, and iustice lodged therein, but now they are murtherers.
Isaiah 1:22 Thy siluer is become drosse: thy wine is mixt with water.
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "wash", "make", "cleane", "take", "away", "euill", "workes", and "before". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "wash" and "make", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 15's "And when you shall stretch out your..." into verse 21's "Howe is the faithfull citie become an...", so "wash" and "make" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "wash" and "make" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.