CHAPTER 58

1 Cry with the throat, spare not; Raise thy voice as with a trumpet; And proclaim to my people their sin, And to the house of Jacob their iniquity.

2 Yet they seek me daily, And wish to know my ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And neglected not the judgment of her God; They inquire at me about the judgments of righteousness: They wish to approach to God.

3 Wherefore have we fasted, And thou didst not take notice of it? Wherefore have we humbled our souls, And thou knewest not? Behold! on the day that ye fast, ye find pleasure, And exact all your demands.

4 Behold! for strife And contention ye fast, And that ye may smite with the wicked fist. Fast not, as ye do this day, That ye may cause your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is it such a fast as I have chosen? That a man may afflict his soul for a day, And may hang down his head as a bulrush, And may spread sackcloth And ashes? Wilt thou call this a fast, And a day acceptable to Jehovah?

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose wicked bonds, To undo heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that ye may burst asunder every yoke?

7 Is it not that thou shalt break thy bread to the hungry, And shalt bring the wandering poor to thy house? If thou shalt see the naked, that thou shalt cover him; And that thou shalt not hide thyself from thine own flesh?

8 Then shall break forth as the dawn thy light; And thy health shall quickly spring up; Righteousness shall go before thy face, And the glory of Jehovah shall gather thee.

9 Then shalt thou call, And Jehovah will listen; Thou shalt cry, And he shall say, Behold! I am here. If thou shalt take away from the midst of thee the burden, And the pointing of the finger, And the speech of vanity; ²⁵³²⁵³     Or, The unprofitable speech.

10 If thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry man, And shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, Thy light shall arise in darkness, And thy obscurity as noon-day;

11 And Jehovah shall always conduct thee, And shall satisfy thy soul in drought, And shall make fit thy bones; And thou shalt be as a well-watered garden, And as a fountain of waters, Whose waters fail not.

12 And from thee shall be those who shall restore the deserts of the age; Thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation And generation; And thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths for inhabiting.

13 If thou shalt turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, And shalt not do thy pleasure on my holy day, And shalt call the Sabbath a delight, To consecrate it to Jehovah, because it is honorable, And shall give honor to it, So as not to follow thine own ways, Nor to find thine own pleasure, Nor to speak thine own words;

14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; And I will cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth, And will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.