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Don’t you see that when you fast,
    you quarrel and fight and beat your workers?
        The way you fast today keeps you from being heard in heaven.
Is this the kind of fasting I have chosen?
    Should people humble themselves for only a day?
    Is fasting just bowing your head like a cattail
    and making your bed from sackcloth and ashes?
    Is this what you call fasting?
    Is this an acceptable day to Yahweh?

This is the kind of fasting I have chosen:
    Loosen the chains of wickedness,
        untie the straps of the yoke,[a]
            let the oppressed go free,
                and break every yoke.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 58:6 A yoke is a wooden bar placed over the necks of work animals so that they can pull plows or carts.

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.
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?

“Is not this the kind of fasting(G) I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice(H)
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed(I) free
    and break every yoke?(J)

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