“I will tell you why!” I respond.
    “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
    you keep oppressing your workers.
⁴ What good is fasting
    when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
    will never get you anywhere with me.
⁵ You humble yourselves
    by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
    like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
    and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
    Do you really think this will please the Lord?

⁶ “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
    lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
    and remove the chains that bind people.
⁷ Share your food with the hungry,
    and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
    and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

⁸ “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
    and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
    and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
⁹ Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
    ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
    Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
¹⁰ Feed the hungry,
    and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
    and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you continually,
    giving you water when you are dry
    and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like an ever-flowing spring.
¹² Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
    Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
    and a restorer of homes.

¹³ “Keep the Sabbath day holy.
    Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath
    and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,
    and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.
¹⁴ Then the Lord will be your delight.
    I will give you great honor
and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!”

⁴ No one cares about being fair and honest.
    The people’s lawsuits are based on lies.
They conceive evil deeds
    and then give birth to sin.
⁵ They hatch deadly snakes
    and weave spiders’ webs.
Whoever eats their eggs will die;
    whoever cracks them will hatch a viper.
⁶ Their webs can’t be made into clothing,
    and nothing they do is productive.
All their activity is filled with sin,
    and violence is their trademark.
⁷ Their feet run to do evil,
    and they rush to commit murder.
They think only about sinning.
    Misery and destruction always follow them.
⁸ They don’t know where to find peace
    or what it means to be just and good.
They have mapped out crooked roads,
    and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.

⁹ So there is no justice among us,
    and we know nothing about right living.
We look for light but find only darkness.
    We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.
¹⁰ We grope like the blind along a wall,
    feeling our way like people without eyes.
Even at brightest noontime,
    we stumble as though it were dark.
Among the living,
    we are like the dead.
¹¹ We growl like hungry bears;
    we moan like mournful doves.
We look for justice, but it never comes.
    We look for rescue, but it is far away from us.
¹² For our sins are piled up before God
    and testify against us.
    Yes, we know what sinners we are.
¹³ We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord.
    We have turned our backs on our God.
We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,
    carefully planning our deceitful lies.
¹⁴ Our courts oppose the righteous,
    and justice is nowhere to be found.
Truth stumbles in the streets,
    and honesty has been outlawed.
¹⁵ Yes, truth is gone,
    and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.

The Lord looked and was displeased
    to find there was no justice.
¹⁶ He was amazed to see that no one intervened
    to help the oppressed.
So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm,
    and his justice sustained him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness as his body armor
    and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance
    and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.
¹⁸ He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds.
    His fury will fall on his foes.
    He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.
¹⁹ In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord;
    in the east, they will glorify him.
For he will come like a raging flood tide
    driven by the breath of the Lord.^[b]

²⁰ “The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem
    to buy back those in Israel
who have turned from their sins,”^[c]
    says the Lord.

⁴ “Look and see, for everyone is coming home!
    Your sons are coming from distant lands;
    your little daughters will be carried home.
⁵ Your eyes will shine,
    and your heart will thrill with joy,
for merchants from around the world will come to you.
    They will bring you the wealth of many lands.
⁶ Vast caravans of camels will converge on you,
    the camels of Midian and Ephah.
The people of Sheba will bring gold and frankincense
    and will come worshiping the Lord.
⁷ The flocks of Kedar will be given to you,
    and the rams of Nebaioth will be brought for my altars.
I will accept their offerings,
    and I will make my Temple glorious.

⁸ “And what do I see flying like clouds to Israel,
    like doves to their nests?
⁹ They are ships from the ends of the earth,
    from lands that trust in me,
    led by the great ships of Tarshish.
They are bringing the people of Israel home from far away,
    carrying their silver and gold.
They will honor the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel,
    for he has filled you with splendor.

¹⁰ “Foreigners will come to rebuild your towns,
    and their kings will serve you.
For though I have destroyed you in my anger,
    I will now have mercy on you through my grace.
¹¹ Your gates will stay open day and night
    to receive the wealth of many lands.
The kings of the world will be led as captives
    in a victory procession.
¹² For the nations that refuse to serve you
    will be destroyed.

¹³ “The glory of Lebanon will be yours—
    the forests of cypress, fir, and pine—
to beautify my sanctuary.
    My Temple will be glorious!
¹⁴ The descendants of your tormentors
    will come and bow before you.
Those who despised you
    will kiss your feet.
They will call you the City of the Lord,
    and Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ “Though you were once despised and hated,
    with no one traveling through you,
I will make you beautiful forever,
    a joy to all generations.
¹⁶ Powerful kings and mighty nations
    will satisfy your every need,
as though you were a child
    nursing at the breast of a queen.
You will know at last that I, the Lord,
    am your Savior and your Redeemer,
    the Mighty One of Israel.^[d]
17 I will exchange your bronze for gold,
    your iron for silver,
your wood for bronze,
    and your stones for iron.
I will make peace your leader
    and righteousness your ruler.
¹⁸ Violence will disappear from your land;
    the desolation and destruction of war will end.
Salvation will surround you like city walls,
    and praise will be on the lips of all who enter there.

¹⁹ “No longer will you need the sun to shine by day,
    nor the moon to give its light by night,
for the Lord your God will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.
²⁰ Your sun will never set;
    your moon will not go down.
For the Lord will be your everlasting light.
    Your days of mourning will come to an end.
²¹ All your people will be righteous.
    They will possess their land forever,
for I will plant them there with my own hands
    in order to bring myself glory.
²² The smallest family will become a thousand people,
    and the tiniest group will become a mighty nation.
    At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen.”

“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,^[b]
    chosen for great honor,
and anyone who trusts in him
    will never be disgraced.”^[c]

“The stone that the builders rejected
    has now become the cornerstone.”^[e]

“He is the stone that makes people stumble,
    the rock that makes them fall.”^[f]

¹⁰ “Once you had no identity as a people;
    now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
    now you have received God’s mercy.”^[h]

²² He never sinned,
    nor ever deceived anyone.^[m]
23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
    nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,
    who always judges fairly.
²⁴ He personally carried our sins
    in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
    and live for what is right.
By his wounds
    you are healed.
²⁵ Once you were like sheep
    who wandered away.
But now you have turned to your Shepherd,
    the Guardian of your souls.