Isaiah 58:5-7
New English Translation
5 Is this really the kind of fasting I want?[a]
Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves,[b]
bowing their heads like a reed
and stretching out[c] on sackcloth and ashes?
Is this really what you call a fast,
a day that is pleasing to the Lord?
6 No, this is the kind of fast I want:[d]
I want you[e] to remove the sinful chains,
to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke,
to set free the oppressed,[f]
and to break every burdensome yoke.
7 I want you[g] to share your food with the hungry
and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people.[h]
When you see someone naked, clothe them!
Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood.[i]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 58:5 tn Heb “choose” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB “wish.”
- Isaiah 58:5 tn Heb “a day when man humbles himself.” The words “Do I want” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Isaiah 58:5 tn Or “making [their] bed.”
- Isaiah 58:6 tn Heb “Is this not a fast I choose?” “No” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
- Isaiah 58:6 tn The words “I want you” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Isaiah 58:6 tn Heb “crushed.”
- Isaiah 58:7 tn Heb “Is it not?” The rhetorical question here expects a positive answer, “It is!”
- Isaiah 58:7 tn Heb “and afflicted [ones], homeless [ones] you should bring [into] a house.” On the meaning of מְרוּדִים (merudim, “homeless”) see HALOT 633 s.v. *מָרוּד.
- Isaiah 58:7 tn Heb “and from your flesh do not hide yourself.”
Isaiah 58:5-7
King James Version
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?
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