Isaiah 58
58
Chapter 58
Worship God truly
1The Lord says,
‘Shout out! Shout as loudly as you can!
Make as much noise as a trumpet makes!
Tell my people that they have not obeyed me.
Tell the family of Jacob about their sins. #58:1 ‘The family of Jacob’ means God's people, Judah and Israel, who were descendants of Jacob.
2Every day my people come to worship me.
It seems that they want to know my ways.
They seem like a nation of people
who are doing the right things.
They seem to be obeying the law of their God.
They ask me to decide things fairly.
Yes, they seem to want to be near to me.
3They say to me, “We have fasted to please you,
but you do not see it.
We make ourselves humble
and you do not even look.”
Listen to me! Yes you fast,
but you do it to please yourselves.
At the same time as you are fasting,
you are being cruel to the people who work for you.
4Yes! While you are fasting,
you are also quarrelling and you are fighting.
You hit each other with your fists.
If you want your prayers to reach me in heaven,
you cannot continue to fast in the way that you do today.
5The way that you fast does not please me at all:
You make yourselves humble for a day.
You bend down your head,
like a piece of weak grass.
You lie down on sackcloth and ashes.
Do you think that you are really fasting when you do that?
Do you think that it pleases me, the Lord?
6This is the way that I want you to fast:
You must remove the chains
from prisoners who should not be in prison.
You must stop being cruel
to the people who work for you.
You must let people who are in pain go free.
You must break the yoke
of work that is too hard for weak people. #58:6 A yoke is a picture of very hard work that you cannot escape from.
7Instead, share your food with hungry people.
Give a place in your home
to poor people who have no home.
Give clothes to people who have nothing to wear.
If people in your own family need help,
do not refuse to help them.
8Then God's light will shine on you,
like the sun's light at dawn.
Very soon, your troubles will go away.
The good things that you do to help others
will be clear for everyone to see.
And the Lord will use his great power
to keep you safe.
9Then you will ask the Lord for help
and he will answer you.
When you call out to him,
he will say, “Here I am.”
But you must stop being cruel to other people.
Do not accuse people,
and do not say bad things about them.
10If people are hungry,
share your own food with them.
Help those people who are in pain.
Then your help to them will be like a light
that shines in a dark place.
You will no longer live in darkness,
but you will have light as bright as the sun at noon.
11The Lord will always be your guide.
He will give you plenty to eat,
even when the ground is dry.
He will make your bodies strong.
You will be like a garden that has plenty of water.
You will be like a spring of water
that never becomes dry.
12You will build again the cities
which became heaps of stones a long time ago.
You will build your houses on the old foundations.
People will call you, “Builders who mend the walls and the streets with their houses.”
13So remember to obey the rules for the Sabbath day.
That is my holy day,
so do not just try to please yourselves.
Enjoy the Sabbath day,
and respect it as the Lord's holy day.
Do not do your usual work on that day.
Do not do things or speak about things,
only to make yourself happy.
14If you do those things, you will be happy
as you serve me, the Lord.
I will give you all the things that you need.
I will cause crops to grow
on the land that I gave to your ancestor Jacob.’
That is the Lord's message.
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Isaiah 58: EASY
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MissionAssist 2018
Isaiah 58
58
True Fasts and Sabbaths
1“Cry aloud, do not hold back!
Raise your voice like a ram’s horn.
Declare to My people their transgression
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2For day after day they seek Me
and delight to know My ways,
like a nation that does what is right
and does not forsake the justice of their God.
They ask Me for righteous judgments;
they delight in the nearness of God.”
3“Why have we fasted,
and You have not seen?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and You have not noticed?”
“Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please,
and you oppress all your workers.
4You fast with contention and strife
to strike viciously with your fist.
You cannot fast as you do today
and have your voice be heard on high.
5Is this the fast I have chosen:
a day for a man to deny himself,
to bow his head like a reed,
and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast
and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:
to break the chains of wickedness,
to untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and tear off every yoke?
7Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry,
to bring the poor and homeless into your home,
to clothe the naked when you see him,
and not to turn away
from your own flesh and blood?
8Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will come quickly.
Your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,
10and if you give yourself to the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted soul,
then your light will go forth in the darkness,
and your night will be like noonday.
11The Lord will always guide you;
He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land
and strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins;
you will restore the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of the Breach,
Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.
13If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath,
from doing as you please on My holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight,
and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
if you honor it by not going your own way
or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,
14then you will delight yourself in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the land
and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
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The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. This text of God's Word has been dedicated to the public domain.