Isaiah 58
The Right Observance
of Fasts |
1 |
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the
house of Jacob their sins.
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2 |
Yet they seek me daily, and delight to
know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not
the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of
justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
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3 |
Wherefore have we fasted, say
they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our
soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast
ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
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4 |
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate,
and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye
do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
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5 |
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a
day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head
as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
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6 |
Is not this the fast that I have
chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every
yoke?
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7 |
Is it not to deal thy bread to the
hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide
not thyself from thine own flesh?
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8 |
Then shall thy light break forth as the
morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy
righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rearward.
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9 |
Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say,
Here I am.
If thou take away from the midst of thee the
yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking
vanity;
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10 |
and if thou draw out thy soul to
the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light
rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the
noonday:
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11 |
and the LORD shall
guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make
fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a
spring of water, whose waters fail not.
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12 |
And they that shall be of thee
shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the
foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The
repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
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The Observance of the
Sabbath |
13 |
If thou turn away thy foot from the
sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the
sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD,
honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
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14 |
then shalt thou delight thyself in the
LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the
high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob
thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath
spoken it.
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