Isaias 58:4

Filipino Cebuano Bible

4 Ania karon, kamo nagapuasa alang sa pakigbugno ug pakigbingkil, ug aron sa pagsamad uban sa kumo sa kadautan: kamo wala magapuasa niining adlawa aron hindunggan ang inyong tingog sa kahitas-an.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye fast: 1 Kings 21:9-13, Proverbs 21:27, Matthew 6:16, Matthew 23:14, Luke 20:47, John 18:28

and to smite: Acts 23:1, Acts 23:2, Philippians 1:14, Philippians 1:15

shall not fast as ye do this day: or, fast not as this day, to make. Joel 2:13, Joel 2:14, Jonah 3:7, Matthew 6:16-18

Reciprocal: Exodus 21:20 - smite Numbers 23:4 - I have prepared 2 Samuel 15:7 - pay 1 Kings 21:12 - General Isaiah 3:15 - ye beat Isaiah 40:9 - lift up Zechariah 7:5 - did 1 Timothy 6:4 - words James 1:7 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, ye fast for strife and debate,.... Brawling with their servants for not doing work enough; or quarrelling with their debtors for not paying their debts; or the main of their religion lay in contentions and strifes about words, vain hot disputations about rites and ceremonies in worship, as is well known to have been the case of the reformed churches:

and to smite with the fist of wickedness; their servants or their debtors; or rather it may design the persecution of such whose consciences would not suffer them to receive the doctrines professed; or submit to ordinances as administered; or comply with rites and ceremonies enjoined by the said churches; for which they have smitten their brethren that dissented from them with the fist, or have persecuted them in a violent manner by imprisonment, confiscation of goods, c. all which is no other than a fist of wickedness, and highly displeasing to God, and renders all their services unacceptable in his sight; see Matthew 24:49:

ye shall not fast as ye do this day; or, "as this day"; after this manner; this is not right:

to make your voice to be heard on high; referring either to their noisy threatening of their servants for not doing their work; or their clamorous demands upon their debtors; or to their loud prayers, joined with their fasting, which they expected to be heard in the highest heaven, but would be mistaken; for such services, attended with the above evils, are not wellpleasing to God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, ye fast for strife and debate - This is a third characteristic of their manner of fasting, and a third reason why God did not regard and accept it. They were divided into parties and factions, and probably made their fastings an occasion of augmented contention and strife. How often has this been seen! Contending denominations of Christians fast, not laying aside their strifes; contending factions in the church fast in order to strengthen their party with the solemn sanctions of religion. One of the most certain ways for bigots to excite persecution against those who are opposed to them is to ‘proclaim a fast;’ and when together, their passions are easily inflamed, their flagging zeal excited by inflammatory harangues, and their purpose formed to regard and treat their dissentient brethren as incorrigible heretics and irreconcilable foes. It may be added, also, that it is possible thus to prostitute all the sacred institutions of religion for party and inflammatory purposes. Even the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper may be thus abused, and violent partisans may come around the sacred memorials of a Saviour’s body and blood, to bind themselves more closely together in some deed of persecution or violence, and to animate their drooping courage with the belief that what has been in fact commenced with a view to power, is carried on from a regard to the honor of God.

And to smite with the fist of wickedness - Lowth renders this, in accordance with the Septuagint. ‘To smite with the fist the poor;’ but this translation can be obtained only by a most violent and wholly unauthorized change in the Hebrew text. The idea is plain, that ‘even when fasting’ they were guilty of strife and personal combats. Their passions were unsubdued, and they gave vent to them in disgraceful personal encounters. This manifests a most extraordinary state of society, and is a most melancholy instance to show how much people may keep up the forms of religion, and even be punctual and exact in them, when the most violent and ungovernable passions are raging in their bosoms, and when they seem to be unconscious of any discrepancy between the religious service and the unsubdued passions of the soul.

Ye shall not fast ... - It is not acceptable to God. It must be offensive in his sight.

To make your voice to be heard on high - That is, in strife and contention. So to contend and strive, says Grotius, that your voice can be heard on the mountain top. Rosenmuller, however, supposes that it means, that their fast was so conducted that they could not expect that their prayers would ascend to heaven and be heard by God. But it seems to me that the former is the correct interpretation. Their fastings were accompanied with the loud and hoarse voice of contention and strife, and on that account could not be acceptable to God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 58:4. Ye fast for strife and debate — How often is this the case! A whole nation are called to fast to implore God's blessing on wars carried on for the purposes of wrath and ambition.

To smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day - "To smite with the fist the poor. Wherefore fast ye unto me in this manner"] I follow the version of the Septuagint, which gives a much better sense than the present reading of the Hebrew. Instead of רשע לא resha lo, they seem to have read in their copy רש על מה לי rash al mah lli. The four first letters are the same, but otherwise divided in regard to the words; the four last are lost, and א aleph added in their place, in order to make some sort of sense with רשע ל. The version of the Septuagint is, και τυπτετε τυγμαις ταπεινον· ἱνα τι μοι νηστευετε - as above.