< Isaiah 58 >
1 “Cry loudly; do not hold back. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Confront my people with their rebellion, and the house of Jacob with their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily and delight in the knowledge of my ways, like a nation that practiced righteousness and did not abandon the law of their God. They ask me for righteous judgments; they take pleasure in the thought of God coming near.
3 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'but you do not see it? Why have we humbled ourselves, but you do not notice?' Look, on the day of your fast you find your own pleasure and oppress all your laborers.
4 Look, you fast to quarrel and fight, and to hit with your fist of wickedness; you do not fast today to make your voice heard above.
5 Is this really the kind of fast that I would want: A day for anybody to humble himself, for him to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Do you really call this a fast, a day that pleases Yahweh?
6 Is not this the fast that I choose: To release wicked bonds, to undo the ropes of the yoke, to set the crushed ones free, and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to break your bread with the hungry and to bring the poor and homeless into your house?” When you see someone naked, you should clothe him; and you should not hide yourself from your own relatives.
8 Then your light would be broken open like the sunrise, and your healing would quickly sprout up; your righteousness would go before you, and the glory of Yahweh would be your rearguard.
9 Then you would call, and Yahweh would answer; you would cry out for help, and he would say, “Here I am.” If you take away from among yourselves the yoke, the accusing finger, and the speech of wickedness,
10 if you yourselves provide for the hungry and satisfy the need of the distressed; then your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be like the noonday.
11 Then Yahweh will lead you continually and satisfy you in regions where there is no water, and he will strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
12 Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the ruins of many generations; you will be called “The repairer of the wall,” “The restorer of streets to live on.”
13 Suppose that you turn back your feet from traveling on the Sabbath day, and from doing your own pleasure on my holy day. Suppose that you call the Sabbath a delight, and that you call the matters of Yahweh holy and honored. Suppose that you honor the Sabbath by leaving your own business, and by not finding your own pleasure and by not speaking your own words.
14 “Then you will find delight in Yahweh; and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you from the inheritance of Jacob your father—for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”
