Isaiah 58

The Lord to Isaiah

58 ¹Cry aloud, spare not,
lift up your voice like a ram’s horn,

and tell My people their transgression,
the house of Jacob their sin.

²And Me, they seek daily
and delight to know My ways,

as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake their God’s justice.

They ask Me for righteous judgments;
they delight to approach God.

God’s covenant people

³Why have we fasted, when You did not see it?
Why have we afflicted our soul, when You did not know it?

The Lord

Behold, in the day of your fast you found pleasure,
and you oppress all your workers.

⁴Behold, you fast to quarrel and to fight
and to smite with a fist of wickedness;

you will not fast as such on this day,
to make your voice heard on high.

⁵Is that the sort of fast that I choose?
Is it a day for a human to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed and to spread sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this fast an acceptable day to the LORD?

⁶Is this not the fast that I choose:
to open the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?

⁷Is it not sharing your bread with the hungry,
bringing the homeless poor into your house?
When you see the naked, covering him?
And from your own flesh, you will not hide yourself?

Isaiah

⁸Then will your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will speedily sprout up.

Your righteousness will go before you;
the glory of the LORD will be your rearguard.

⁹Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
then you will cry for help, and He will say,

The Lord

“Here I am.”

Isaiah

If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing finger, and speaking wickedness,

¹⁰if you pour out your soul for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then your light in the dark will rise as the sun,
and your darkness will be as the noonday.

¹¹And the LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your soul while in scorched places,
and make your bones strong.

You will be like a watered garden,
like a source of water whose waters do not fail.

¹²And some of you will rebuild ancient ruins.
You will raise up the foundations of many generations.

You will be called,

Titles of one who properly fasts

“The Repairer of the Broken Walls,”
“The Restorer of Paths to Dwell in.”

The Lord

¹³If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on My holy day,

and call the Sabbath: “Delight,”
“the Holy of the LORD,” “Honorable,”

and you will honor it by not going your own ways,
nor finding your own pleasure,
nor speaking idly,

¹⁴then you will take delight in the LORD,
and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth,
and I will feed you the inheritance of Jacob, your father;

Isaiah

for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.