Isaiah 58:1-59:13

English Standard Version

True and False Fasting

58 “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
    ^(A)lift up your voice like a trumpet;
^(B)declare to my people their transgression,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
²^(C)Yet they seek me daily
    and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
    and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
    they delight to draw near to God.
³^(D)‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
    Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,^[a]
    ^(E)and oppress all your workers.
⁴Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
    and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
    will not make your voice to be heard on high.
⁵^(F)Is such the fast that I choose,
    ^(G)a day for a person to humble himself?
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 a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶“Is not this the fast that I choose:
    ^(H)to loose the bonds of wickedness,
    to undo the straps ^(I)of the yoke,
to let the oppressed^[b] go free,
    and to break every yoke?
⁷Is it not ^(J)to share your bread with the hungry
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
    ^(K)and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸^(L)Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
    ^(M)and your healing shall spring up speedily;
^(N)your righteousness shall go before you;
    ^(O)the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
⁹Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away ^(P)the yoke from your midst,
    ^(Q)the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
¹⁰^(R)if you pour yourself out for the hungry
    and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
^(S)then shall your light rise in the darkness
    and your gloom be as the noonday.
¹¹And the Lord will guide you continually
    and satisfy your desire in scorched places
    and make your bones strong;
and you shall be ^(T)like a watered garden,
    like a spring of water,
    whose waters do not fail.
¹²^(U)And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
    you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
    the restorer of streets to dwell in.

¹³^(V)“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
    from doing your pleasure^[c] on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
    and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
    or seeking ^(W)your own pleasure,^[d] or talking idly;^[e]
¹⁴then you shall take delight in the Lord,
    ^(X)and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;^[f]
^(Y)I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
    ^(Z)for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Evil and Oppression

59 Behold, ^(AA)the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
²^(AB)but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.
³^(AC)For your hands are defiled with blood
    and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
    your tongue mutters wickedness.
⁴^(AD)No one enters suit justly;
    no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
    ^(AE)they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
⁵They hatch adders' eggs;
    they weave the spider's web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
    and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
⁶^(AF)Their webs will not serve as clothing;
    men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
    and deeds of violence are in their hands.
⁷^(AG)Their feet run to evil,
    and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
    desolation and destruction are in their highways.
⁸The way of peace they do not know,
    and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
    ^(AH)no one who treads on them knows peace.

⁹Therefore justice is far from us,
    and righteousness does not overtake us;
^(AI)we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
    and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
¹⁰^(AJ)We grope for the wall like the blind;
    we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
    ^(AK)among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
¹¹We all growl like bears;
    ^(AL)we moan and moan like doves;
^(AM)we hope for justice, but there is none;
    for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
    and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
    and we know our iniquities:
¹³transgressing, and denying the Lord,
    and turning back from following our God,
^(AN)speaking oppression and revolt,
    conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.