1“Cry out aloud, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a shofar and declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2Yet they seek me daily and seem to delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did what is right and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask me for righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.
3They say, ‘Why have we fasted, and you do not see? We have afflicted our souls, but you do not notice.’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers.
4Behold, you fast only to quarrel and fight, and to strike others with the fist of wickedness. You cannot fast as you do this day and make your voice heard on high.
5Is this the manner of fasting that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to Yahweh?
6Isn’t this the kind of fast that I choose: to release the bonds of wickedness, to untie the straps of the yoke and to let the oppressed go free, and that you tear off every yoke?
7Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring the homeless poor into your house; and that when you see the naked person you cover him, and that you do not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring forth speedily, and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard.
9Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer; you will cry out, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you will remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing and speaking wickedly,
10and 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 be as noonday,
11and Yahweh will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in dry places, and strengthen your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
12Some of you 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.’
13If you turn back your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of Yahweh honorable, and will honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,
14then you will delight yourself in Yahweh, and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the land, and I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father;” for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.
REV Bible
