Fasting As Yahweh Chooses

1“Call out from your throat, do not hold back;

Raise your voice like a trumpet,

And declare to My people their transgression

And to the house of Jacob their sins.

2Yet they seek Me day by day and find pleasure in knowing My ways,

As a nation that has done righteousness

And has not forsaken the judgment of their God.

They ask Me for righteous judgments;

They find pleasure in the nearness of God.

3‘Why have we fasted and You do not see?

Why have we afflicted our souls and You do not know?’

Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,

And oppress all your workers.

4Behold, you fast for contention and quarreling and to strike with a wicked fist.

You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.

5Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to afflict himself?

Is it for bowing [†]one’s head like a reed

And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?

Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to Yahweh?

6Is this not the fast which I choose,

To loosen the bonds of wickedness,

To release the bands of [†]the yoke,

And to let the oppressed go free

And break every [†]yoke?

7Is it not to divide your bread [†]with the hungry

And bring the afflicted homeless into the house;

When you see the naked, you cover him;

And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

8Then your light will break out like the dawn,

And your recovery will speedily spring forth;

And your righteousness will go before you;

The glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard.

9Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer;

You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you remove the [†]yoke from your midst,

The [†]pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,

10And if you [†]offer your soul to the hungry

And satisfy the soul of the afflicted,

Then your light will rise in darkness

And your thick darkness will become like midday.

11And Yahweh will continually guide you,

And satisfy your soul in scorched places,

And fortify your bones;

And you will be like a watered garden,

And like a spring of water whose waters do not [†]fail.

12Those from among you will rebuild the ancient waste places;

You will raise up the foundations of past generation upon generation;

And you will be called the repairer of the breach,

The restorer of the paths for one to inhabit.

Keeping the Sabbath

13“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot

From doing your own desire on My holy day,

And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of Yahweh honorable,

And honor it, by not doing your own ways,

By not finding your own desire

And speaking your own word,

14Then you will take delight in Yahweh,

And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;

And I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father,

For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”