¶ And therefore cry now, as loud as thou canst. Leave not off, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their offenses, and the house of Iacob their sins.
For they seek me daily, and will know my ways, even as it were a people that did right, and had not forsaken the statutes of their God. They argue with me concerning right judgement, and will pleate at the law with their God.
¶ Wherefore fast we (say they) and thou seest it not? we put our lives to straightness, and thou regardest it not?
Behold, when ye fast, your lust remaineth still: for ye do no less violence to your debtors: Lo, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite him with your fist that speaketh unto you. Ye fast not (as some time) that your voice might be heard above.
Think ye this fast pleaseth me, that a man should chasten himself for a day, and to wring his head about like an hook in an hairy cloth, and to lie upon the earth? Should that be called fasting, or a day that pleaseth the LORD?
But this fasting pleaseth not me, till the time be thou lowse him out of bondage, that is in thy danger: that thou break the oath of wicked bargains, that thou let the oppressed go free, and take from them all manner of burthens.
It pleaseth not me, till thou deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the poor fatherless home into thy house, when thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and hide not thy face from thine own flesh.
¶ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health flourish right shortly: thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the LORD shall embrace thee.
Then if thou callest, the LORD shall answer thee: if thou cryest, he shall say: Here I am. Yea If thou layest away thy burthens, and holdest thy fingers, and ceasest from blasphemous talking,
if thou hast compassion upon the hungry, and refreshest the troubled soul: Then shall thy light spring out in the darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noon day.
The LORD shall ever be thy guide, and satisfy the desire of thine heart, and fill thy bones with marry. Thou shalt be like a fresh watered garden, and like the fountain of water, that never leaveth running.
Then the places that have ever been waste, shall be builded of thee: there shalt thou lay a foundation for many kindreds. Thou shalt be called the maker up of hedges, and the builder again of the way of the Sabbath.
¶ Yea if thou turn thy feet from the Sabbath, so that thou do not the thing which pleaseth thy self in my holy day: then shalt thou be called unto the pleasant, holy, and glorious Sabbath of the LORD, where thou shalt be in honor: so that thou do not after thine own imagination, neither seek thine own will, nor speak thine own words.
Then shalt thou have thy pleasure in the LORD, which shall carry thee high above the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Iacob thy father: for the LORD's own mouth hath so promised.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.