And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
(Psalms 66:18; Proverbs 28:9; Lamentations 3:43-44.)
When ye spread forth your hands - in prayer (1 Kings 8:22.).
I will hide mine eyes from you ... your hands are full of blood - Hebrew, 'bloods,' put for all heinous sins, persecution of God's servants especially (Matthew 23:35). It was the vocation of the prophets to dispel the delusion, so contrary to the law itself (Deuteronomy 10:16), that outward ritualism would satisfy God. It was the characteristic of the Jews in Christ's time (to which there is an ulterior reference), that they "devoured widows' houses, and for a pretence made long prayers" (Matthew 23:14).