Isaiah 58

Shout out loud, and do not hold back. Raise your voice like a ram's horn. Tell my people what they have done wrong, and tell the family of Jacob about their sins.

1Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

NoteA ram's horn (Hebrew *shofar*) was not a musical instrument but a signaling one: a hollowed horn blown to sound an alarm, summon troops, or call a crowd to attention. The image is of a loud, urgent, unmistakable warning. "The house of Jacob" means the nation descended from Jacob, Israel, called by the name of its ancestor, much as one might say "the house of Windsor."

2Day after day they look for me, and they delight to know my ways, like a nation that does what is right and has not turned away from the just rules of its God. They ask me for fair decisions, and they delight in drawing near to God.

2Yet 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.

3They say, "Why have we gone without food, and you have not seen it? Why have we gone without, to humble ourselves, and you have not noticed?" Here is why. On the day you fast, you do whatever pleases you, and you drive all your workers hard.

3Wherefore 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 labours.

NoteFasting meant going without food, and often without washing, comfortable clothes, or ordinary business, for a set period. It was done publicly as a sign of grief or repentance, or to press a request on God, and the assumption behind the people's complaint here is that a fast obliges God to take notice. "Afflict the soul" (verses 3 and 5) is the standard Hebrew phrase for this self-denial; "soul" in Hebrew usually means the whole living person, not a separable spirit. The last clause is uncertain in Hebrew: it may mean the fasters drove their hired laborers to work as usual on the very day they themselves abstained, or that they pressed their debtors for what was owed.

4Look at what you do. You fast while you argue and fight, and you strike people with cruel fists. You cannot fast the way you are fasting today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

4Behold, 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.

5Is this the kind of fast I have chosen? A day for a person to go without and feel miserable? A day to bow the head like a bending reed, and to lie down on rough cloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day the LORD accepts?

5Is 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?

NoteA bulrush is a tall marsh reed with a heavy head that droops over on its stalk. Bowing the head "like a bulrush" pictures a posture of mourning adopted and held for show. Sackcloth was coarse, scratchy cloth woven from goat hair; wearing it, and sitting or lying in ashes, were the recognized outward signs of grief and repentance across the ancient Near East.

6Is not this the fast I have chosen: to break the chains of injustice, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set free those who are crushed, and to snap every yoke in two?

6Is 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?

NoteA yoke was a wooden beam fastened across the necks of two draft animals so they could pull a plow or cart together. Applied to people it was the standard image for forced labor, debt-slavery, or subjection to a harsh ruler, hence the chains, cords and breaking. "Loose the bands" and "undo the heavy burdens" describe untying the straps that held a yoke in place: releasing someone from compelled service.

7Is it not to share your food with the hungry, and to bring the poor who have no home into your own house? When you see someone with no clothes, you cover him, and you do not turn away from your own family.

7Is 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?

8Then your light will break out like the morning sun, and your healing will come quickly. Your right living will go ahead of you, and the glory of the LORD will guard you from behind.

8Then 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 rereward.

NoteThe rear guard was the detachment at the back of a marching column, protecting it from attack from behind, the most vulnerable position for a body of people on the move. The picture is of a traveler with right conduct going ahead as a vanguard and God's own presence closing up the rear. The King James "rereward" is simply an old spelling of "rearguard," not a different word.

9Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, "Here I am." This will happen if you take the yoke away from among you, and stop pointing the finger at people, and stop speaking harmful words,

9Then 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;

NotePointing the finger was a gesture of public accusation, mockery, or contempt, singling someone out for scorn. "Speaking vanity" translates a Hebrew word for what is empty or worthless, used here of talk that harms: slander, false accusation, malicious gossip.

10and if you give yourself to the hungry and meet the needs of people who are suffering. Then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will be as bright as noon.

10And 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 noon day:

Note"Draw out thy soul to the hungry" is literally "offer your appetite to the hungry." The Hebrew is open between two senses that both fit: give the hungry the food you yourself wanted, and give yourself, your effort and attention, to them.

11The LORD will guide you all the time. He will satisfy you even in a dry, burning land, and he will make your bones strong. You will be like a garden with plenty of water, like a spring whose water never runs dry.

11And 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.

12Your people will rebuild the places that have lain in ruins for a long time. You will raise up foundations that were laid generations ago. You will be called the one who repairs the broken wall, the one who makes the streets fit to live in again.

12And 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.

NoteA "breach" is a gap smashed through a city's defensive wall, the point where attackers got in and the first thing rebuilders had to close. "Paths to dwell in" are the streets of a ruined town, restored to the point where people can live along them again. Both are titles of honor here, names a community would be known by, in a land whose towns had been left in ruins by invasion.

13This depends on you keeping your feet from breaking the Sabbath, and not doing as you please on my holy day. Call the Sabbath a delight, and call the LORD's holy day worth honoring. Honor it by not going your own way, not doing as you please, and not filling the day with your own talk.

13If 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, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

NoteThe Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, on which all ordinary work stopped (for the household, its servants, and its animals alike. "Turning your foot" from it is a Hebrew idiom for staying off a path: not walking into the day as if it were any other. The three things forbidden here) going your own way, seeking your own pleasure, speaking your own words, cover ordinary business, ordinary errands, and ordinary business talk.

14Then you will find your delight in the LORD. I will make you ride on the high places of the land, and I will feed you with the land given to your father Jacob. The mouth of the LORD has said it.

14Then 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.

Note"To ride upon the high places of the earth" is an old Hebrew image for secure and unchallenged possession of a country: the ridges and hilltops were where invaders came from and where a land was held or lost, so riding over them means the land is yours. "The heritage of Jacob" is the territory handed down from the ancestor Jacob as family inheritance. "The mouth of the LORD hath spoken it" is a set closing formula that marks the end of a prophetic speech and stakes its truth on the speaker.