Cry aloud, spare
not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew
my people their transgression, and the house of
Jacob their sins.
02 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my
ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and
forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask
of me the ordinances of justice; they take
delight in approaching to God.
03 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou
seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul,
and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day
of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your
labours.
04 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to
smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not
fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be
heard on high.
05 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day
for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down
his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth
and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast,
and an acceptable day to the Lord?
06 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to
loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and
that ye break every yoke?
07 Is it not to deal thy bread to 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 thine
own flesh?
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08 Then shall thy light break forth as the
morning, and thine health shall spring forth
speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before
thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy
rereward.
09 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 putting forth of the finger, and
speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy
light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as
the noon day:
11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and
satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy
bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water, whose waters fail
not.
12 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.
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath,
from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call
the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord,
honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine
own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor
speaking thine own words:
14 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 Jacob thy father: for the mouth of
the Lord hath spoken it.
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