True Fasts and Sabbaths

1“Call out from the throat, do not hold back!

Like a shofar lift up your voice,

and declare to My people their transgression,

and to the house of Jacob their sins.

2And day by day they seek Me,

and they delight to know My ways,

like a nation that does righteousness,

and the justice of their God they do not forsake!

They ask me for judgments of righteousness;

in the nearness of God they delight:

3“Why have we fasted

and You have not seen—

we have afflicted our soul,

and You have not noticed?”

“Behold, on the day of your⁺ fast you⁺ find pleasure,

and you⁺ oppress all your⁺ laborers!

4Behold, for quarreling and strife you⁺ fast,

and for striking with the fist of wickedness.

You⁺ shall not fast like this day

to make heard your⁺ voice on high.

5Is it like this, the fast I choose?

A day for a man to afflict his soul,

for bowing down his head like a reed,

and spreading out sackcloth and ashes—

do you call this a fast,

and a day of pleasure for YHWH?

6Is not this the fast I choose:

To open the bonds of wickedness,

to untie the cords of the yoke,

and to send forth the crushed ones free,

and tear off every yoke?

7Is it not to distribute your bread to the hungry,

and the wandering the poor you should bring into the house;

when you see one naked then clothe him,

and do not hide yourself

from your own flesh?

8Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will sprout quickly,

and your righteousness will go before you;

the glory of YHWH will gather behind you.

9Then you will call, and YHWH will answer;

you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am!

If you take away the yoke from among you,

the pointing of the finger and the speaking of wickedness,

10and if you extend to the hungry your soul,

and satisfy the afflicted soul,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your darkness will be like the noonday.

11And YHWH will guide you continually,

and will satisfy your soul in scorched lands,

and He will strengthen your bones;

and you will be watered like a garden,

and like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

12And some of you will rebuild the ruins of old;

you will raise up the foundations of generation and generation,

and you will be called Repairer of the Breach,

Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

13If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,

doing your pleasure on My holy day,

and if you call the Sabbath a delight,

holy of YHWH, honored,

and if you honor it above doing your own ways

above finding your own delight and speaking a word,

14then you will delight yourself in YHWH;

and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth,

and I will feed you the inheritance of Jacob your father.”

For the mouth of YHWH has spoken.