Thus says the Lord GOD: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift
up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and
the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to
know my ways, Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned
the law of their God; They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to
gain access to God. "Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict
ourselves, and you take no note of it?"
Lo, on your fast day you carry
out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in
quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you
might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of
fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like
a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day
acceptable to the LORD? This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting
free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the
hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when
you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall
break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your
vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear
guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for
help, and he will say: Here I am!
