Isaiah
Chapter 58
1 Shout loudly, don’t hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their wrongs, and the family of Jacob their sins.
2 They look for me every day and enjoy learning my ways, like a country that did what’s right and didn’t ignore their God’s laws: they want to know my fair laws; they love to come close to God.
3 Why do we fast, they ask, and you don’t see? Why do we make ourselves suffer, and you don’t notice? Look, on your fast day you seek your own pleasure and make all your workers work hard.
4 Look, you fast to cause arguments and fights, and to hit with wicked fists: you should not fast like today if you want your voices heard by God.
5 Is this the kind of fasting I have chosen? A day for a person to make themselves suffer? Is it just to hang your head low like a reed and to lie on sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day pleasing to God?
6 Isn’t this the fast I have chosen: to break the chains of evil, to remove the heavy loads, to set free those who are crushed, and to break every bondage?
7 Isn’t it to share your food with the hungry, and to welcome the poor who have nowhere to stay into your home? When you see someone without clothes, to give them something to wear; and not to ignore your own relatives?
8 Your light will shine like the dawn, and your health will quickly improve; your goodness will lead the way, and God’s glory will protect you from behind.
9 You will call and God will answer; you will cry and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you stop oppressing others, pointing fingers, and speaking falsely;
10 If you give your heart to the hungry and comfort the troubled soul, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your darkest time will be like midday.
11 God will always guide you, satisfy you in dry times, make you healthy, and you will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring that never runs dry.
12 Your descendants will rebuild the ruined places. You will restore the foundations laid long ago. You will be known as the fixer of broken walls and the restorer of livable streets.
13 If you stop doing what you want on my holy day, the Sabbath, and see it as a joyful and special day for God, and respect it by not following your usual routines, seeking your own enjoyment, or talking about everyday matters:
14 You will enjoy being close to God; He will let you triumph on the earth’s high places and give you the blessings of your ancestor Jacob: this is God’s promise.