Isaiah 58

1 Cry aloud, and don’t hold back; lift up your voice like it’s a trumpet, and declare to ⛑️The People their faults, and to the house of Jacob their crimes. 2 They seek me day by day, and desire to know my ways, as a people that had done righteousness, and had not forsaken the judgment of their God: they now ask of me righteous judgment, and desire to draw near to God, 3 saying, Why have we fasted, and you do not see us? why have we afflicted our souls, and you did not know it? No, in the days of your fasts y'all find your pleasures, and all those under your power y'all hurt. 4 I can see y'all fasting for quarrels and strifes, and striking the lowly with your fists, that’s why y'all fast to me today, is it any more than mere virtue signaling? 5 Is this how I taught you to fast, to openly afflict your soul? There’s no need to bend over backwards to spread under you sackcloth and ashes, is this what you think I asked for? 6 What I asked for, what I chose, says the Lord; is to loose the burdens you place on others, to untie the knots of your unfair contracts, set the bruised free, and cancel every unjust debt. 7 Break your bread with the hungry, and invite the unsheltered poor to your house: if you see someone naked, clothe them, and you shall not disregard your own relatives. 8 Then your light will break forth like the coming of dawn, and your integrity shall be clear to all: and your righteousness shall be the talk of the town, and the glory of God shall surround you. 9 That is when your cry to God will he heard. while you are yet speaking he will say, Behold, I am here. If you remove from you the band, and the stretching forth of the hands, and murmuring speech; 10 and if you give bread to the hungry from your heart, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light spring up in darkness, and your darkness shall be as noon-day: 11 and your God shall be with you continually, and you shall be satisfied according as your soul desires; and your bones shall be made fat, and shall be as a well-watered garden, and as a fountain from which the water has not failed. 12 And your old waste desert places shall be built up, and your foundations shall last through all generations; and you shall be called a repairer of breaches, and you shall cause your paths between to be in peace. 13 If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, so as not to do your * pleasure on the holy days, and shall call the sabbaths delightful, holy to God; if you shall not lift up your foot to work, nor speak a word in anger out of your mouth, 14 then shall you trust on the Lord; and he shall bring you up to the good places of the land, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.