< Isaiah 58 >

1 Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, 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 they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to 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 taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
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 Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will 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 a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should 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 Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
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 Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
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 morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
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 heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
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 When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
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 And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not 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 And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
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 restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
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 find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
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 >