True Fasts and Sabbaths

¹ “Call with the throat; you must not keep back! lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare¹ to my people their rebellion, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

1. Or “announce”

² Yet¹ they seek me day by day, and they desire the knowledge of my ways like a nation that ⌞practiced⌟² righteousness, and had not forsaken the judgment of its God; they ask me for ⌞righteous judgments⌟,³ they desire the closeness of God.

1. Or “And”
2. Literally “did”
3. Literally “judgments of righteousness”

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⌟.¹ You shall not fast as you do ⌞today⌟,² to ⌞make your voice heard⌟³ on the height.

1. Literally “fist of wickedness”
2. Literally “the day”
3. Literally “cause to hear your voice”

⁵ Is the fast I choose like this, a day for humankind to humiliate ⌞himself⌟¹? To bow his head like a reed, and ⌞make⌟² his bed on sackcloth and ashes; you call this a fast and a day of pleasure to Yahweh?

1. Literally “his soul”
2. Literally “he makes”

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⌟¹ every yoke to pieces?

1. Literally “you must tear”

⁷ Is it not to break your bread for the hungry? You must bring ⌞home⌟¹ the poor, the homeless. When you see the naked, you must cover him, and you must not hide yourself from your ⌞relatives⌟.²

1. Literally “a house”
2. Literally “flesh”

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⌟¹ and ⌞evil speech⌟,²

1. Literally “stretching out of the finger”
2. Literally “the speaking of evil”

¹⁰ if¹ you offer your soul to the hungry, and you satisfy the appetite of the afflicted, then² your light shall rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be like noon.

1. Or “and”
2. Or “and”

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,⌟¹ and ⌞you shall be called⌟² the bricklayer of the breach, the restorer of paths to live in.

1. Literally “generation and generation”
2. Literally “shall be called to you”

¹³ If you hold your foot back from the Sabbath, from doing your affairs on ⌞my holy day⌟,¹ if² you call the Sabbath a pleasure, the holy day of Yahweh honorable, if³ you honor him ⌞more than⌟⁴ doing your ways, than finding your affairs⁵ and speaking a word,

1. Literally “the day of my holiness”
2. Or “and”
3. Literally “and”
4. Literally “from”
5. Hebrew “affair”

¹⁴ then you shall take your pleasure in¹ Yahweh, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth, and I will feed you the heritage of Jacob your ancestor,² for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”

1. Or “on”
2. Or “father”