Isaiah 58:1–7

¹“Cry aloud, spare not,

lift up your voice like a trumpet;

declare to my people their transgression,

to the house of Jacob their sins.

²Yet they seek me daily,

and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that did righteousness

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments,

they delight to draw near to God.

³‘Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?’

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,

and oppress all your workers.

⁴Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to hit with wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day

will not make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵Is such the fast that I choose,

a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a rush,

and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast,

and a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶“Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

⁷Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?