_The False Worship and the True._
1. Cry with full throat, hold not back; lift up thy voice like a
bugle, and proclaim to My people their apostasy, and to the house of
Jacob their sins. 2. And they seek Me[1] day by day, and desire to
learn My ways, like a nation which has done righteousness; they
desire the drawing near of Elohim.
3. Wherefore do we fast and Thou seest not, afflict our soul and Thou
regardest not? Behold, on the day of your fasting ye carry on your
business, and ye oppress all your labourers. 4. Behold, ye fast with
strife and quarrelling, and with smiting of the fist maliciously
closed: ye do not fast now to make your voice audible on high.[2]
5. Can such things as these pass for a fast that I have pleasure in,
as a day for a man to afflict his soul? To bow down his head like a
bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under him--dost thou call
this a fast and an acceptable day for Jehovah? 6. Is not this a fast
that I have pleasure in: to loose coils of wickedness, to untie the
bands[3] of the yoke, and for sending away the oppressed as free, and
that ye break every kind of yoke? 7. Is it not this, to break thy
bread to the hungry, and to take the poor and houseless to thy
home;[4] when thou seest a naked man that thou clothest him, and dost
not deny thyself before thine own flesh?
8. Then will thy light break forth as the morning dawn, and thy
healing will sprout up speedily, and thy righteousness will go before
thee, the glory of Jehovah will follow thee. 9. Then will thou call,
and Jehovah will answer; then wilt beseech, and He will say, Here am
I.
If thou put away from the midst of thee the yoke, the pointing of the
finger, and speaking of evil, 10. and offerest up thy gluttony to the
hungry;[5] and satisfiest the soul that is bowed down: thy light will
stream out in the darkness, and thy darkness become like the
brightness of noon-day. 11. And Jehovah will guide thee continually,
and satisfy thy soul in droughts, and refresh thy bones; and thou
wilt become like a well-watered garden, and like a fountain, whose
waters never deceive.[6] 12. And thy people[7] will build ruins of
the olden time, foundations of earlier generations wilt thou erect;
and men will call thee Repairer of breaches, Restorer of habitable
streets.
13. If thou hold back thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy
business on my holy day, and callest the Sabbath a delight, the holy
of Jehovah, reverend, and honourest it, not doing thine own ways, not
pursuing thy business and speaking words:[8] 14. then wilt thou have
delight in Jehovah, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high
places of the land, and make thee enjoy the inheritance of Jacob thy
forefather, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.