Isaiah 58
1“Cry loudly; do not hold back. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. 1 Confront my people with their rebellion, and the house of Jacob with their sins. 1
2Yet they seek me daily and delight in the knowledge of my ways, 1 like a nation that practiced righteousness and did not abandon the law of their God. 1 They ask me for righteous judgments; they take pleasure in the thought of God coming near. 1
3'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'but you do not see it? Why have we humbled ourselves, but you do not notice?' 1 Look, on the day of your fast you find your own pleasure and oppress all your laborers. 1
4Look, you fast to quarrel and fight, and to hit with your fist of wickedness; 1 you do not fast today to make your voice heard above. 1
5Is this really the kind of fast that I would want: A day for anybody to humble himself, 1 for him to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? 1 Do you really call this a fast, a day that pleases Yahweh? 1
6Is not this the fast that I choose: 1 To release wicked bonds, to undo the ropes of the yoke, 1 to set the crushed ones free, and to break every yoke? 1
7Is it not to break your bread with the hungry and to bring the poor and homeless into your house?” 1 When you see someone naked, you should clothe him; and you should not hide yourself from your own relatives. 1
8Then your light would be broken open like the sunrise, and your healing would quickly sprout up; 1 your righteousness would go before you, and the glory of Yahweh would be your rearguard. 1
9Then you would call, and Yahweh would answer; you would cry out for help, and he would say, “Here I am.” 1 If you take away from among yourselves the yoke, the accusing finger, and the speech of wickedness, 1
10if you yourselves provide for the hungry and satisfy the need of the distressed; 1 then your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be like the noonday. 1
11Then Yahweh will lead you continually and satisfy you in regions where there is no water, 1 and he will strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden, 1 and like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 1
12Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the ruins of many generations; 1 you will be called “The repairer of the wall,” “The restorer of streets to live on.” 1
13Suppose that you turn back your feet from traveling on the Sabbath day, and from doing your own pleasure on my holy day. 1 Suppose that you call the Sabbath a delight, and that you call the matters of Yahweh holy and honored. 1 Suppose that you honor the Sabbath by leaving your own business, and by not finding your own pleasure and by not speaking your own words. 1
14“Then you will find delight in Yahweh; and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; 1 I will feed you from the inheritance of Jacob your father—for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”