Chapter 58
1 " Cry aloud ! Don’t spare ! Lift up your voice like a trumpet ! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins .
2 Yet they seek me daily , and delight to know my ways . As a nation that did righteousness , and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God , they ask of me righteous judgments . They delight to draw near to God .
3 ‘ Why have we fasted ,’ they say, ‘ and you don’t see ? Why have we afflicted our soul , and you don’t notice ?’ " Behold , in the day of your fast you find pleasure , and oppress all your laborers.
4 Behold , you fast for strife and contention , and to strike with the fist of wickedness . You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high .
5 Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul ? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself ? Will you call this a fast , and an acceptable day to Yahweh ?
6 "Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness , to undo the straps of the yoke , to let the oppressed go free , and that you break every yoke ?
7 Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry , and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house ? When you see the naked , that you cover him ; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh ?
8 Then your light will break out as the morning , and your healing will appear quickly ; then your righteousness shall go before you , and Yahweh ’s glory will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call , and Yahweh will answer . You will cry for help , and he will say , ‘ Here I am .’ " If you take away from among you the yoke , finger pointing , and speaking wickedly;
10 and if you pour out your soul to the hungry , and satisfy the afflicted soul , then your light will rise in darkness , and your obscurity will be as the noonday ;
11 and Yahweh will guide you continually , satisfy your soul in dry places , and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden , and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail .
12 Those who will be of you will build the old waste places . You will raise up the foundations of many generations . You will be called Repairer of the Breach , Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.
13 "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath , from doing your pleasure on my holy day , and call the Sabbath a delight , and the holy of Yahweh honorable , and honor it , not doing your own ways , nor finding your own pleasure , nor speaking your own words ,
14 then you will delight yourself in Yahweh , and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;" for Yahweh ’s mouth has spoken it .