True Fasts and Sabbaths

• lift up your voice like a trumpet,
• and declare[fn] to my people their rebellion,
  • and to the house of Jacob their sins.
  • 2 Yet[fn] they seek me day by day, and they desire the knowledge of my ways
• like a nation that practiced[fn] righteousness,
  • and had not forsaken the judgment of its God;
• they ask me for righteous judgments ,[fn]
  • they desire the closeness of God.
  • 3 ‘Why do we fast, and you do not see it? We humiliate our soul, and you do not notice it?’
• Look! You find delight on the day of your fast,
  • and you oppress all your workers!
  • 4 Look! You fast to quarrel and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist .[fn]
• You shall not fast as you do today ,[fn]
  • to make your voice heard[fn] on the height.
  • 5 Is the fast I choose like this, a day for humankind to humiliate himself[fn]?
• To bow his head like a reed,
  • and make[fn] his bed on sackcloth and ashes;
• you call this a fast
  • and a day of pleasure to Yahweh?
  • 6 Is this not the fast I choose: to release the bonds of injustice, to untie the ropes of the yoke,
• and to let the oppressed go free,
  • and tear[fn] every yoke to pieces?
  • 7 Is it not to break your bread for the hungry? You must bring home[fn] the poor, the homeless.
• When you see the naked, you must cover him,
  • and you must not hide yourself from your relatives .[fn]
  • 8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall grow quickly.
• And your salvation shall go before you;
  • the glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard.
  • 9 Then you shall call, and Yahweh himself will answer. You shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am!’
• If you remove from among you the yoke,
  • the finger-pointing[fn] and evil speech ,[fn]
  • 10 if[fn] you offer your soul to the hungry, and you satisfy the appetite of the afflicted,
• then[fn] your light shall rise in the darkness,
  • and your darkness will be like noon.
  • 11 And Yahweh will lead you continually, and satisfy your soul in a barren land, and he will strengthen your bones,
• and you shall be like a well-watered garden,
  • and like a spring of water whose water does not fail.
  • 12 And they shall rebuild ancient ruins from you; you shall erect the foundations of many generations,[fn]
• and you shall be called[fn] the bricklayer of the breach,
  • the restorer of paths to live in.
  • 13 If you hold your foot back from the Sabbath, from doing your affairs on my holy day ,[fn]
• if[fn] you call the Sabbath a pleasure,
  • the holy day of Yahweh honorable,
• if[fn] you honor him more than[fn] doing your ways,
  • than finding your affairs[fn] and speaking a word,
  • 14 then you shall take your pleasure in[fn] Yahweh, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth,
  • and I will feed you the heritage of Jacob your ancestor,[fn]

for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”