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The Prophecy
of Isaias 58
Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and
shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of
Jacob their sins.
For they seek me from day to day, sad desire to know
my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath
not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of
me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach
to God.
Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have
we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice?
Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found,
and you exact of all your debtors.
Behold you fast for debates and strife. and strike with
the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until
this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.
Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict
his soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about
like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt
thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose
the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress,
let them that are broken go free, and break asunder
every burden.
Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and
the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see
one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and
thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall
go before thy face, end the glory of the Lord shall
gather thee up.
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou
shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt
take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease
to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth
not.
When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and
shalt satisfy the afflicted soul then shall thy light
rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the
noonday.
And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will
fill thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones,
and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a
fountain of water whose waters shall not fail
And the places that have been desolate for ages shall
be built in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundations
of generation and generation: and thou shalt be called
the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest.
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing
thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful,
and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him,
while thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is
not found: to speak a word:
Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will
lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and
will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father.
For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. |