The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 58 -

Yahweh said to me, “Shout loudly! Shout like a loud trumpet! Shout to warn my Israelite people about their sins!

They worship me every day; they come to my temple because they say that they are eager to know what I want them to do. They act as though they were a nation that does things that are righteous, that would never abandon the commands of me, their God. They request me to decide matters justly, and they are eager that I should come to them.

They say, ’We have fasted to please you, but you did not notice our doing that. We humbled ourselves, but you did not pay any attention!’ I will tell you why I did not pay attention. It is because when you fast, you do it only to please yourselves, and you act cruelly toward all your workers.

You fast, but you also quarrel and fight with each other with your fists. Doing things like that while you fast will certainly not cause me to hear your prayers where I am, high in heaven.

You bow your heads like the tops of reeds bend when the wind blows, and you wear rough clothes and cover your heads with ashes like people do when they are grieving. That is what you do when you are fasting, but do you really think that will please me?

No, that is not the kind of fasting that I desire. Instead you should seek to free those who have been unjustly put in prison, and encourage those who are treated cruelly; and free those who have been oppressed in any way.

Share your food with those who are hungry and allow those who have no houses to stay in your houses. Give clothes to those who do not have clothes, and do not hide yourself from your relatives who need help from you.

If you do those things, what you do for others will be like a light that shines when it dawns. The troubles that have been caused by your sins will end quickly. Others will know about your righteous behavior, and the glorious presence of Yahweh will protect you from behind like I protected the Israelite people when they left Egypt.

Then you will call out to me, and I will quickly answer and say, ‘I am here to help you.’ Stop oppressing people; stop falsely accusing people; and stop saying evil things about people.

Give food to those who are hungry, and give to people who are afflicted the things that they need. Your doing that will be like a light that shines in the darkness; instead of doing evil to people, the good things you do for people will be like the sunshine at noontime.

Yahweh will guide you continually, and he will give you good things to satisfy you. He will enable you to remain strong and healthy. You will be like a garden that is well watered, like a spring that never dries up.

Your people will rebuild the cities that were destroyed long ago; they will build houses on top of the old foundations. People will say that you are the ones who are repairing the holes in the city walls, and who are repairing the streets where people live.

Do not travel on the Sabbath days, and on Sabbath days do not do only the things that you delight to do. Enjoy the Sabbath days, and consider them to be delightful. The Sabbath days are my holy days. Honor me, Yahweh, in everything that you do on the Sabbath days. Do not talk about and do things to please yourselves. If you do all the things that I have just now told you to do; listen, and I will tell you what I will do for you.

I will enable you to be joyful. I will greatly honor you; it will be as though you were riding with me above the highest mountains! I will give to you the blessings that I gave to your ancestor Jacob. Those things will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”

“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers.

Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;

and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;

and the LORD will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail.

Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.

“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the LORD honorable, and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,

then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for the LORD’s mouth has spoken it.