Isaiah 58
Isaiah 58:1-12
1. Cry aloud, do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2. Yet they seek me day after day and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did what is just and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me righteous judgments; they take delight in approaching God.
3. “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?” Behold, in the day of your fasting you find pleasure, and oppress all your workers.
4. Behold, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast as you should today, to make your voice heard on high.
5. Is such the fast I have chosen, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed and to spread sackcloth and ashes under oneself? Do you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?
6. Is not this the fast I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8. Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly; your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.” If you remove from your midst the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10. and if you pour out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom will become like the noonday.
11. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong; and you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
12. Then your exiles will rebuild the ancient ruins, you will raise up the foundations of many generations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.