Isaiah 58

1 Cry aloud and do not hold back. Lift your voice like a trumpet and announce my people’s sins and the house of Jacob’s lawless deeds.

2 They seek me every day and want to know my ways, like a people who practiced righteousness and did not abandon their God’s judgment. Now they ask me for righteous judgment and want to come near God,

3 saying, ‘Why did we fast if you did not notice? Why did we humble ourselves if you did not know?’ No, on your fast days you pursue your pleasures and wound everyone under your authority.

4 If you fast for quarrels and fights and strike the lowly with your fists, why fast for me as you do today, making your voice heard by crying out?

5 I did not choose this kind of fast or a day like this for someone to humble himself. Even if you bend your neck like a ring and spread sackcloth and ashes beneath you, you cannot call this an acceptable fast.

6 I did not choose such a fast, says the Lord. Instead, loosen every bond of wrongdoing, untie the knots of harsh agreements, set the oppressed free, and cancel every unjust account.

7 Share your bread with the hungry and bring the unsheltered poor into your home. If you see someone naked, clothe him, and do not ignore the relatives of your own family.

8 Then your light will break out like morning, and your healing will quickly spring up. Your righteousness will go before you, and God’s glory will surround you.

9 Then you will cry, and God will listen. While you are still speaking, he will say, ‘Look, I am here.’ If you remove the bonds, threatening hands, and grumbling speech from among you,

10 and give bread to the hungry from your heart and satisfy an afflicted person, then your light will rise in darkness, and your darkness will become like midday.

11 Your God will always be with you, and you will be satisfied as your soul desires. Your bones will grow strong, and you will be like a well-watered garden and a spring whose water never fails. Your bones will spring up like grass and grow strong, and they will inherit generation after generation.

12 Your ancient deserted ruins will be rebuilt, and your foundations will last through every generation. You will be called a repairer of broken walls, and you will bring peace to the paths between them.

13 If you keep your foot from the Sabbath and do not pursue your pleasure on holy days, if you call the Sabbaths delightful and holy to God, and if you do not lift your foot to work or speak an angry word,

14 then you will trust in the Lord. He will bring you to the land’s good places and feed you with your father Jacob’s inheritance, because the Lord’s mouth has spoken.