1
And therefore cry now, as loud as thou canst. Leave not off, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their offenses, and the house of Jacob their sins. {Cry with the throat and spare not. Lift up thy voice as a trumpet, and tell my people their offences and the house of Jacob their sins.}
2
For they seek me daily, and will know my ways, even as it were a people that did right, and had not forsaken the statutes of their God. They argue with me concerning right judgement, and will pleate at the law with their God. {For me they seek day by day, and will know my ways, as a people that doth righteousness, and hath not forsaken the equity of their God.}
3
Wherefore fast we (say they) and thou seest it not? we put our lives to straightness, and thou regardest it not? {They seek of me righteous judgements, and will draw nye unto God. Why have we fasted and thou hast not looked upon it, have humbled our souls, and thou wouldest not wit it.}
4
Behold, when ye fast, your lust remaineth still: for ye do no less violence to your debtors: Lo, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite him with your fist that speaketh unto you. Ye fast not (as some time) that your voice might be heard above. {Behold when ye fast, ye can find your own lusts, and can call cruelly on all your debtors. Ye fast to law and strive and to smite with fist wickedly. Fast not as ye now do, to make your voice to be heard upon high.}
5
Think ye this fast pleaseth me, that a man should chasten himself for a day, and to wring his head about like an hook in an hairy cloth, and to lie upon the earth? Should that be called fasting, or a day that pleaseth the LORD? {Should it be such a manner of fast that I should chose, a day that a man should hurt his soul in? Or to bow down his head like a bulrush? Or to spread sack cloth and ashes under him? Shouldest thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable unto the LORD?}
6
But this fasting pleaseth not me, till the time be thou lowse him out of bondage, that is in thy danger: that thou break the oath of wicked bargains, that thou let the oppressed go free, and take from them all manner of burthens. {Or is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? To loose wicked bonds and to unbind bundles of oppression? And to let the bruised go free? And that ye should break all manner yokes?} (Septuagint: I have not chosen such a fast, saith the Lord; but do thou loose every burden of iniquity, do thou untie the knots of hard bargains, set the bruised free, and cancel every unjust account. Luke 4:18-19)
7
It pleaseth not me, till thou deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the poor fatherless home into thy house, when thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and hide not thy face from thine own flesh. {yea and to break the bread to the hungry, and to bring the poor that are harbourless unto house, and when thou seest a naked, that thou clothe him and that thou shouldest withdraw thyself from helping thine own flesh?}
8
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health flourish right shortly: thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the LORD shall embrace thee. {Then should the light break out as doth the dayspring, and then health should shortly bud out. And thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the LORD would come upon thee.}
9
Then if thou callest, the LORD shall answer thee: if thou cryest, he shall say: Here I am. {Then shouldest thou call, and the LORD answer, then shouldest thou cry, and he shall say: lo here am I. For I the LORD thy God am merciful.} Yea If thou layest away thy burthens, and holdest thy fingers, and ceasest from blasphemous talking,
10
if thou hast compassion upon the hungry, and refreshest the troubled soul: Then shall thy light spring out in the darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noon day.
11
The LORD shall ever be thy guide, and satisfy the desire of thine heart, and fill thy bones with marry. Thou shalt be like a fresh watered garden, and like the fountain of water, that never leaveth running.
12
Then the places that have ever been waste, shall be builded of thee: there shalt thou lay a foundation for many kindreds. Thou shalt be called the maker up of hedges, and the builder again of the way of the Sabbath.
13
Yea if thou turn thy feet from the Sabbath, so that thou do not the thing which pleaseth thy self in my holy day: then shalt thou be called unto the pleasant, holy, and glorious Sabbath of the LORD, where thou shalt be in honor: so that thou do not after thine own imagination, neither seek thine own will, nor speak thine own words.
14
Then shalt thou have thy pleasure in the LORD, which shall carry thee high above the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the LORD's own mouth hath so promised.