¹“Cry aloud ! Don’t spare !

Lift up your voice like a trumpet !

Declare to my people their disobedience,

and to the house of Jacob their sins .

²Yet they seek me daily ,

and delight to know my ways .

As a nation that did righteousness ,

and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God ,

they ask of me righteous judgements.

They delight to draw near to God .

³‘Why have we fasted ,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see ?

Why have we afflicted our soul , and you don’t notice ?’

“Behold , in the day of your fast you find pleasure ,

and oppress all your labourers.

⁴Behold , you fast for strife and contention ,

and to strike with the fist of wickedness .

You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high .

⁵Is this the fast that I have chosen?

A day for a man to humble his soul ?

Is it to bow down his head like a reed,

and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself ?

Will you call this a fast ,

and an acceptable day to the LORD ?

⁶“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:

to release the bonds of wickedness ,

to undo the straps of the yoke ,

to let the oppressed go free ,

and that you break every yoke ?

⁷Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry ,

and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house ?

When you see the naked ,

that you cover him ;

and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh ?

⁸Then your light will break out as the morning ,

and your healing will appear quickly ;

then your righteousness shall go before you ,

and the LORD ’s glory will be your rear guard.

⁹Then you will call , and the LORD will answer .

You will cry for help , and he will say , ‘Here I am .’

“If you take away from amongst you the yoke ,

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 darkness ,

and your obscurity will be as the noonday ;

¹¹and the LORD will guide you continually ,

satisfy your soul in dry places ,

and make your bones strong.

You will be like a watered garden ,

and like a spring of water

whose waters don’t fail .

¹²Those who will be of you will build the old waste places .

You will raise up the foundations of many generations .

You will be called Repairer of the Breach ,

Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.

¹³“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath ,

from doing your pleasure on my holy day ,

and call the Sabbath a delight ,

and the holy of the LORD honourable ,

and honour it ,

not doing your own ways ,

nor finding your own pleasure ,

nor speaking your own words ,

¹⁴then you will delight yourself in the LORD ,

and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth,

and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;”

for the LORD ’s mouth has spoken it .