Isaiah 58

True Fasts and Sabbaths

¹“Call with the throat; you must not keep back!

and declare to my people their rebellion,

²Yet they seek me day by day,[#Or “And”]

like a nation that practiced righteousness,

they ask me for righteous judgments,

³‘Why do we fast, and you do not see it?

Look! You find delight on the day of your fast,

⁴Look! You fast to quarrel and strife,

You shall not fast as you do today,

⁵Is the fast I choose like this,

To bow his head like a reed,

you call this a fast

⁶Is this not the fast I choose: to release the bonds of injustice,

and to let the oppressed go free,

⁷Is it not to break your bread for the hungry?

When you see the naked, you must cover him,

⁸Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

And your salvation shall go before you;

⁹Then you shall call, and Yahweh himself will answer.

If you remove from among you the yoke,

¹⁰if you offer your soul to the hungry,[#Or “and”]

then your light shall rise in the darkness,

¹¹And Yahweh will lead you continually, and satisfy your soul in a barren land,

and you shall be like a well-watered garden,

¹²And they shall rebuild ancient ruins from you;

and you shall be called the bricklayer of the breach,

¹³If you hold your foot back from the Sabbath,

if you call the Sabbath a pleasure,

if you honor him more than doing your ways,

¹⁴then you shall take your pleasure in Yahweh,[#Or “on”]

for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”