Isaiah 58:1–9

Observances of Fasts

1 “aCry loudly, do not hold back;

Raise your voice like a trumpet,

And declare to My people their btransgression

And to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 “Yet they aseek Me day by day and delight to know My ways,

As a nation that has done brighteousness

And chas not forsaken the ordinance of their God.

They ask Me for just decisions,

They delight din the nearness of God.

3 ‘Why have we afasted and You do not see?

Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not 1notice?’

Behold, on the bday of your fast you find your desire,

And drive hard all your workers.

4 “Behold, you fast for contention and astrife and to strike with a wicked fist.

You do not fast like you do today to bmake your voice heard on high.

5 “Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it for bowing 1one’s head like a reed

And for spreading out asackcloth and ashes as a bed?

Will you call this a fast, even an bacceptable day to the Lord?

6 “Is this not the fast which I choose,

To aloosen the bonds of wickedness,

To undo the bands of the yoke,

And to blet the oppressed go free

And cbreak every yoke?

7 “Is it not to adivide your bread 1with the hungry

And bbring the homeless poor into the house;

When you see the cnaked, to cover him;

And not to dhide yourself from your own flesh?

8 “Then your alight will break out like the dawn,

And your brecovery will speedily spring forth;

And your crighteousness will go before you;

The glory of the dLord will be your rear guard.

9 “Then you will acall, and the Lord will answer;

You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you bremove the yoke from your midst,

The 1cpointing of the finger and dspeaking wickedness,