Isaiah 58

¹ Shout for all you are worth, do not hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet. To my people proclaimtheir rebel ious acts, to the House of Jacob, their sins.

² They seek for me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that has acted uprightly andnot forsaken the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are upright, they long to be near God:

³ 'Why have we fasted, if you do not see, why mortify ourselves if you never notice?' Look, you seek yourown pleasure on your fastdays and you exploit al your workmen;

⁴ look, the only purpose of your fasting is to quarrel and squabble and strike viciously with your fist.Fasting like yours today wil never make your voice heard on high.

⁵ Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a day when a person inflicts pain on himself? Hanging yourhead like a reed, spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you cal fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh?

⁶ Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke. to letthe oppressed go free, and to break al yokes?

⁷ Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someonelacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin?

⁸ Then your light wil blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice wilgo ahead of you and Yahweh's glory come behind you.

⁹ Then you will cry for help and Yahweh wil answer; you will cal and he will say, 'I am here.' If you doaway with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words,

¹⁰ if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light wil rise in thedarkness, and your darkest hour wil be like noon.

¹¹ Yahweh will always guide you, wil satisfy your needs in the scorched land; he wil give strength toyour bones and you wil be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never run dry.

¹² Your ancient ruins wil be rebuilt; you will build on age -- old foundations. You wil be cal ed 'Breach-mender', 'Restorer of streets to be lived in'.

¹³ If you refrain from breaking the Sabbath, from taking your own pleasure on my holy day, if you cal the Sabbath 'Delightful', and the day sacred to Yahweh 'Honourable', if you honour it by abstaining from travel, fromseeking your own pleasure and from too much talk,

¹⁴ then you wil find true happiness in Yahweh, and I shal lead you in triumph over the heights of theland. I shall feed you on the heritage of your father Jacob, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.