“1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my
people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet
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.”
“3 Wherefore 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. 4 Behold, 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. 5 Is 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? 6 [Is] 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?
7 [Is 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?”
“8 Then 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 rereward. 9 Then 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; 10 And [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 noonday: 11 And 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. 12 And [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.”
“13 If 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: 14 Then
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].” (Isaiah
58:1-14 AV)