Isaiah 58
1Cry
aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
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 the ordinances of
justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
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 pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast
as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5Is
it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread
sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to
undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
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?
8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning,
and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy
reward.
9Then shalt thou call, and the LORD
shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting
forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10And
if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness
be as the noon day:
11And the LORD shall guide
thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like
a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
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.
13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy
day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14Then
shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with
the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
