The Book of Isaiah
58: 1Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my
people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins. 58:2Yet they seek
me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and
forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they
delight to draw near unto God. 58:3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou
seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?
Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact all your
labors. 58:4Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of
wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. 58:5Is
such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow
down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou
call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah? 58:6Is not this the fast that I have
chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to
let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 58:7Is it not to deal thy
bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself
from thine own flesh? 58:8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy
healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the
glory of Jehovah shall by thy rearward. 58:9Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will
answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou take away from the
midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly;
58:10and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then
shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noonday; 58:11and
Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make
strong thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of
water, whose waters fail not. 58:12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old
waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou
shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. 58:13If
thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy
day; and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt
honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking
thine own words: 58:14then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make
thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the
heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.