True Fasts and Sabbaths

“Cry aloud, do not hold back!

Raise your voice like a ram’s horn.

Declare to My people their transgression

and to the house of Jacob their sins.

For day after day they seek Me

and delight to know My ways,

like a nation that does what is right

and does not forsake the justice of their God.

They ask Me for righteous judgments;

they delight in the nearness of God.”

“Why have we fasted,

and You have not seen?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

and You have not noticed?”

“Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please,

and you oppress all your workers.

You fast with contention and strife

to strike viciously with your fist.

You cannot fast as you do today

and have your voice be heard on high.

Is this the fast I have chosen:

a day for a man to deny himself,

to bow his head like a reed,

and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast

and a day acceptable to the LORD?

Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:

to break the chains of wickedness,

to untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and tear off every yoke?

Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry,

to bring the poor and homeless into your home,

to clothe the naked when you see him,

and not to turn away

from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will come quickly.

Your righteousness will go before you,

and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;

you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you remove the yoke from your midst,

the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,

and if you give yourself to the hungry

and satisfy the afflicted soul,

then your light will go forth in the darkness,

and your night will be like noonday.

The LORD will always guide you;

He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land

and strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins;

you will restore the age-old foundations;

you will be called Repairer of the Breach,

Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath,

from doing as you please on My holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight,

and the LORD’s holy day honorable,

if you honor it by not going your own way

or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,

then you will delight yourself in the LORD,

and I will make you ride on the heights of the land

and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.