< Isaiah 58 >

1 “Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.
Crye aloude, spare not: lift vp thy voyce like a trumpet, and shewe my people their transgression, and to the house of Iaakob, their sinnes.
2 For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”
Yet they seeke me dayly, and will knowe my wayes, euen as a nation that did righteously, and had not forsaken the statutes of their God: they aske of me the ordinances of iustice: they wil drawe neere vnto God, saying,
3 “Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers.
Wherefore haue we fasted, and thou seest it not? we haue punished our selues, and thou regardest it not. Beholde, in the day of your fast you will seeke your will, and require all your dettes.
4 You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.
Beholde, ye fast to strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickednesse: ye shall not fast as ye doe to day, to make your voyce to be heard aboue.
5 Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is it such a fast that I haue chosen, that a man should afflict his soule for a day, and to bowe downe his head, as a bull rush, and to lie downe in sackecloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fasting, or an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?
Is not this the fasting, that I haue chosen, to loose the bandes of wickednes, to take off the heauie burdens, and to let the oppressed goe free, and that ye breake euery yoke?
7 Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Is it not to deale thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poore that wander, vnto thine house? when thou seest the naked, that thou couer him, and hide not thy selfe from thine owne flesh?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then shall thy light breake foorth as the morning, and thine health shall grow speedily: thy righteousnes shall goe before thee, and the glorie of the Lord shall embrace thee.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answere: thou shalt cry and hee shall say, Here I am: if thou take away from the mids of thee the yoke, the putting foorth of the finger, and wicked speaking:
10 and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.
If thou powre out thy soule to the hungrie, and refresh the troubled soule: then shall thy light spring out in the darkenes, and thy darkenes shalbe as the noone day.
11 The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfie thy soule in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watred garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters faile not.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.
And they shalbe of thee, that shall builde the olde waste places: thou shalt rayse vp the foundations for many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach and the restorer of the pathes to dwell in.
13 If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,
If thou turne away thy foote from the Sabbath, from doing thy will on mine holy day, and call the Sabbath a delite, to consecrate it, as glorious to the Lord, and shalt honour him, not doing thine owne wayes, nor seeking thine owne will, nor speaking a vaine word,
14 then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.”
Then shalt thou delite in the Lord, and I wil cause thee to mount vpon the hie places of the earth, and feede thee with the heritage of Iaakob thy father: for the mouth of ye Lord hath spoken it.

< Isaiah 58 >