Isaiah 58:4-6
Easy-to-Read Version
4 You are hungry, but not for food. You are hungry for arguing and fighting, not for bread. You are hungry to hit people with your evil hands. This is not the way to fast if you want your prayers to be heard in heaven! 5 Do you think I want to see people punish their bodies on those days of fasting? Do you think I want people to look sad and bow their heads like dead plants? Do you think I want people to wear mourning clothes and sit in ashes to show their sadness? That is what you do on your days of fasting. Do you think that is what the Lord wants?
6 “I will tell you the kind of day I want—a day to set people free. I want a day that you take the burdens off others. I want a day when you set troubled people free and you take the burdens from their shoulders.
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Isaiah 58:4-6
New International Version
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,(A)
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard(B) on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast(C) I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble(D) themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed(E)
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?(F)
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
Isaiah 58:4-6
King James Version
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?
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