14 “You have said, ‘It is futile(A) to serve(B) God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements(C) and going about like mourners(D) before the Lord Almighty?

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‘Why have we fasted,’(A) they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled(B) ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’(C)

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please(D)
    and exploit all your workers.

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They scoff, and speak with malice;(A)
    with arrogance(B) they threaten oppression.(C)
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
    and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10 Therefore their people turn to them
    and drink up waters in abundance.[a]
11 They say, “How would God know?
    Does the Most High know anything?”

12 This is what the wicked are like—
    always free of care,(D) they go on amassing wealth.(E)

13 Surely in vain(F) I have kept my heart pure
    and have washed my hands in innocence.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 73:10 The meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain.

Yet you ask him, ‘What profit is it to me,[a]
    and what do I gain by not sinning?’(A)

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Footnotes

  1. Job 35:3 Or you

by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn(A) and fast in the fifth(B) month, as I have done for so many years?”

Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted(C) and mourned in the fifth and seventh(D) months for the past seventy years,(E) was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?(F)

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12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps
    and punish those who are complacent,(A)
    who are like wine left on its dregs,(B)
who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing,(C)
    either good or bad.’(D)

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Rend Your Heart

12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return(A) to me with all your heart,(B)
    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

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For he says, ‘There is no profit
    in trying to please God.’(A)

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Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.(A)

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17 They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
    What can the Almighty do to us?’(A)

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14 Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!(A)
    We have no desire to know your ways.(B)
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    What would we gain by praying to him?’(C)

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