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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 the Lord?

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.
Share your food with the hungry,
take the poor and homeless into your house,
and cover them with clothes when you see ⌞them⌟ naked.
Don’t refuse to help your relatives.

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Footnotes

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

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?

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?

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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