Isaiah 58:3-7 ▼

3 Why have we fasted,' they ask, 'but you do not see? 'Why have we humbled ourselves,' they ask, 'but you take no notice?'| |Look! On your fast day you serve your own interest and oppress all your workers.

4 |Look! You fast only for quarreling, and for fighting, and for hitting with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice heard on high.

5 |Is this the kind of fast that I have chosen, merely a day for a person to humble himself? Is it merely for bowing down one's head like a bulrush, for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, an acceptable day to the LORD?

6 Isn't this the fast that I have been choosing: to loose the bonds of injustice, and to untie the cords of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

7 Isn't it to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him with clothing, and not to raise yourself up from your own flesh and blood?|