Isaiah 58 KJV
True Fasting
Isaiah Chapter 58: True Fasting
The chapter frames true fasting as a reenactment of the Exodus by commanding the breaking of every 'yoke,' reusing the precise terminology of liberation from Egyptian bondage to portray intra-Israelite justice as a new act of divine deliverance.
1ry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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?
6 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?
7 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?
8 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.
9 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.
โ โ arrow keys to navigate chapters ยท spacebar to play/pause audio
Did You Know?
The chapter frames true fasting as a reenactment of the Exodus by commanding the breaking of every 'yoke,' reusing the precise terminology of liberation from Egyptian bondage to portray intra-Israelite justice as a new act of divine deliverance.
Verse 8's promise that the Lord's glory will serve as the community's 'rereward' deliberately echoes the pillar of cloud positioned behind Israel in Exodus 14:19, transferring the wilderness theophany of protection into an ethical context of restored social order.
The healing that 'springs forth speedily' (arukah) in verse 8 employs the same rare term used for the repair of Jerusalem's walls in Nehemiah 4:16, collapsing personal restoration and communal rebuilding into a single prophetic image.
By moving from the negation of ritual fasting (vv. 3-5) to the positive command to 'loose the bands of wickedness,' the text inverts the structure of a typical priestly torah on fasting and relocates holiness from cultic purity to covenantal ethics.
The final conditional promise that the people will 'ride upon the high places of the earth' (v. 14) directly alludes to the victory language of Deuteronomy 32:13 and 33:29, reapplying an ancient conquest motif to Sabbath-keeping as the path to eschatological inheritance.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain aloud โ Hebrew, "with the throat," that is, with full voice, not merely from the lips (1Sa 1:13). Speak loud enough to arrest attention. my people โ the Jews in Isaiah's time, andโฆ
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Isaiah 58 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: Reproof of the jews for their dependence on mere outward forms of worship.
- 1
- aloud โ Hebrew, "with the throat," that is, with full voice, not merely from the lips (1Sa 1:13). Speak loud enough to arrest attention. my people โ the Jews in Isaiah's time, and again in the time of our Lord, more zealous for externals than for inward holiness. ROSENMULLER thinks the reference to be to the Jews in the captivity practising their rites to gain God's favor and a release; and that hence, sacrifices are not mentioned, but only fasting and Sabbath observance, which they could keep though far away from the temple in Jerusalem. The same also applies to their present dispersion, in which they cannot offer sacrifices, but can only show their zeal in fastings, &c. Compare as to our Lord's time, Mt 6:16, 23; Lu 18:12.
- 2
- Put the stop at "ways"; and connect "as a nation that," &c. with what follows; "As a nation that did righteousness," thus answers to, "they ask of Me just judgments" (that is, as a matter of justice due to them, salvation to themselves, and destruction to their enemies); and "forsook not the ordinance of their God," answers to "they desire the drawing near of God" (that God would draw near to exercise those "just judgments" in behalf of them, and against their enemies) [MAURER]. So JEROME, "In the confidence, as it were, of a good conscience, they demand a just judgment, in the language of the saints: Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity." So in Mal 2:17, they affect to be scandalized at the impunity of the wicked, and impugn God's justice [HORSLEY]. Thus, "seek Me daily, and desire (English Version not so well, 'delight') to know My ways," refers to their requiring to know why God delayed so long in helping them. English Version gives a good, though different sense; namely, dispelling the delusion that God would be satisfied with outward observances, while the spirit of the law, was violated and the heart unchanged (Isa 58:3-14; Eze 33:31, 32; compare Joh 18:28), scrupulosity side by side with murder. The prophets were the commentators on the law, as their Magna Charta, in its inward spirit and not the mere letter.
Read all 14 notes on Isaiah 58 โ