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Isaiah 58
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew
my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
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.
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 labours.
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.
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?
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?
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?
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.
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;
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 noon day:
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.
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.
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,
honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine
own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
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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