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Fasting as Yahweh Chooses

¹ "^(C1)Call out from your throat, do not hold back;
Raise your voice like a trumpet,
And declare to My people their ^(C2)transgression
And to the house of Jacob their sins.

² "Yet they ^(C1)seek Me day by day and find pleasure in knowing My ways,
As a nation that has done ^(C2)righteousness
And ^(C3)has not forsaken the judgment of their God.
They ask Me for righteous judgments;
They find pleasure in ^(C4)the nearness of God.

³ 'Why have we ^(C1)fasted and You do not see?
Why have we afflicted our souls and You do not know?'
Behold, on the ^(C2)day of your fast you find your desire,
And oppress all your workers.

⁴ "Behold, you fast for contention and ^(C1)quarreling and to strike with a wicked fist.
You do not fast like you do today to ^(C2)make your voice heard on high.

⁵ "Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to afflict himself?
Is it for bowing ^(F1)one's head like a reed
And for spreading out ^(C1)sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
Will you call this a fast, even an ^(C2)acceptable day to Yahweh?

⁶ "Is this not the fast which I choose,
To ^(C1)loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To release the bands of ^(F1)the yoke,
And to ^(C2)let the oppressed go free
And ^(C3)break every ^(F1)yoke?

⁷ "Is it not to ^(C1)divide your bread ^(F1)with the hungry
And ^(C2)bring the afflicted homeless into the house;
When you see the ^(C3)naked, you cover him;
And not to ^(C4)hide yourself from your own flesh?

⁸ "Then your ^(C1)light will break out like the dawn,
And your ^(C2)recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your ^(C3)righteousness will go before you;
The glory of ^(C4)Yahweh will be your rear guard.

⁹ "Then you will ^(C1)call, and Yahweh will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'
If you ^(C2)remove the ^(F1)yoke from your midst,
The ^(F2)(C3)pointing of the finger and ^(C4)speaking wickedness,

¹⁰ And if you ^(F1)(C1)offer your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the soul of the afflicted,
Then your ^(C2)light will rise in darkness
And your thick darkness will become like midday.

¹¹ "And ^(C1)Yahweh will continually guide you,
And ^(C2)satisfy your soul in scorched places,
And ^(C3)fortify your bones;
And you will be like a ^(C4)watered garden,
And like a ^(C5)spring of water whose waters do not ^(F1)fail.

¹² "Those from among you will ^(C1)rebuild the ancient waste places;
You will ^(C2)raise up the foundations of past generation upon generation;
And you will be called the repairer of the ^(C3)breach,
The restorer of the paths for one to inhabit.

Keeping the Sabbath

¹³ "If because of the sabbath, you ^(C1)turn your foot
From doing your own desire on My holy day,
And call the sabbath a ^(C2)delight, the holy day of Yahweh honorable,
And honor it, by not doing your ^(C3)own ways,
By not finding your own desire
And ^(C4)speaking your own word,

¹⁴ Then you will take ^(C1)delight in Yahweh,
And I will make you ride ^(C2)on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father,
For the ^(C3)mouth of Yahweh has spoken."