Yeshayahu 58 ישעיהו נ״ח

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like the shofar, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Ya῾aqov their sins.

Yet they seek me daily, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me judgments of justice; they desire that God should be near.

Why have we fasted, say they, and Thou seest not? why have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you pursue your business, and exact all your payments.

Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you fast not this day to make your voice to be heard on high.

Is such the fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? to loose the chains of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share thy bread with 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 thy own flesh?

Then shall thy light break forth like the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearguard.

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 pointing of the finger, and speaking iniquity;

and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thy gloom be as the noonday:

and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make strong thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

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.

If thou restrain thy foot because of the sabbath, from pursuing thy business on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honourable; and shalt honour it, not doing thy own ways, nor pursuing thy own business, nor speaking of vain matters,

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 Ya῾aqov thy father: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.