1Call out with the throat, do not hold back; like the ram’s horn raise your voice. Declare to my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2Yet me they seek day by day, and they delight to know my ways, like a nation that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the justice of its God. They ask me for righteous judgments; they delight in the drawing near of God.
3‘Why have we fasted, and you did not see? Why have we humbled our soul, and you take no notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you pursue your own desire, and you drive hard all your laborers.
4Behold, for quarreling and strife you fast, and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast as this day to make your voice heard on high.
5Is this the kind of fast I choose, a day for a person to humble his soul? Is it to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, and a day acceptable to Yahweh?
6Is not this the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the oppressed away free, and to tear apart every yoke?
7Is it not to break your bread for the hungry, and to bring the afflicted homeless into the house? When you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly; your righteousness will go before you, the glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard.
9Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove from your midst the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness—
10and if you offer yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom will be like noonday.
11And Yahweh will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in scorched places, and strengthen your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
12And they who come from you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the foundations of many generations, and you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to dwell in.
13If you turn back your foot from the sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy day of Yahweh honorable, and honor it by not going your own ways, not seeking your own pleasure, or speaking a word—
14then you will take delight in Yahweh, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father—for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.
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