True Fasts and Sabbaths
1 “Cry out loud! Do not hold back!
Raise your voice like a trumpet!
Tell my people of their disobedience,
and to the house of Jacob, their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily,
and appear to delight in knowing my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness,
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
They ask for righteous judgments from me.
They delight in drawing near to God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted, they say, ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you do not notice?’
“On the day of your fast you do as you please,
and oppress all your laborers.
4 You fast for strife and contention,
and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You shall not fast as you are doing this day,
to cause your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast that I would choose:
A day for a man to humble himself
and bow his head down like a reed,
spreading sackcloth and ashes under himself?
Would you call this a fast,
and day pleasing to the Lord?
6 Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
Releasing the bonds of wickedness,
undoing the straps of the yoke,
letting the oppressed go free,
breaking every yoke?
7 Is it not for distributing your bread to the hungry,
and bringing the poor and rejected into your house?
When you see the naked, covering him,
not hiding yourself from your brother in need?
8 Then your light will dawn like the morning,
and your healing will soon come.
Your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer.
You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you would remove the yoke from among you,
the finger pointing and malicious talk,
10 and if you would extend yourself for the hungry,
and satisfy the troubled soul;
then your light would rise in the darkness,
and your darkness would be like the noonday,
11 and the Lord would always guide you,
and through the drought,
will satisfy your needs and give you strength.
You will be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild what lies in ruins.
You will raise up the foundations of many generations.
You will be called Repairer of the Breach,
Restorer of Paths and Homes.
13 If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight,
and the holy day of the Lord honorable,
and honor it, not going your own way,
nor finding your own pleasure,
nor speaking idle words,
14 then you will delight in the Lord,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth,
and I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father;”
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.