Old Testament · Isaiah

Isaiah 58

True Fasts and Shabbats

1Cry with the throat, do not hold back; like a shofar lift up your voice; and declare to my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2Yet me they seek day by day, and they delight to know my ways; like a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment^a of its God; they ask of me judgments of righteousness, they delight in the nearness of God.
3"Why have we fasted, and you do not see? Why have we afflicted our soul^b, and you take no knowledge?" Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and all your laborers you drive hard.
4Behold, for strife and contention you fast, and to strike with the fist of wickedness; you do not fast as this day to make your voice heard on high.
5Is it such, the fast I choose, a day for a man^c to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?
6Is not this the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to send the oppressed away free, and that you break every yoke?
7Is it not to break your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the afflicted poor who are cast out into the house? When you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh^d?
8Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall gather you.
9Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry out, and he will say, "Here I am." If you remove from your midst the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking iniquity,
10and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall be like the noonday.
11And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in parched places, and strengthen your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
12And those from you shall build the ancient ruins; you shall raise up the foundations of generation and generation; and you shall be called Repairer of the breach, Restorer of paths to dwell in.
13If you turn back your foot from the Shabbat, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Shabbat a delight, the holy of the LORD honorable; and honor it, away from doing your own ways, from finding your own pleasure or speaking a word,
14then you shall delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.