(1) Call out with full throat, do not hold back!
Like the ram's horn lift your voice!
Tell my people their wrongdoing,
the house of Jacob their failures.
(2) Me, daily they seek;
in knowing my way take pleasure;
like a nation that practised righteousness
and had not abandoned the justice of its God.
They ask me for righteous judgments
in the nearness of God they take pleasure.

(3) Why do we fast, and you do not see?
Do we afflict our souls and you do not know?
Because on your fast day you do as you please
and all your workers you tyrannize.
(4) Because in strife and contention you fast,
and to strike with a wicked fist!
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.

(5) Is this the fast I choose,
a day to afflict one's soul?
To bow like a reed one's head
in sackcloth and ashes to lie down?
This you call a fast,
a day of favour to Adonai?

(6) Is not this the fast I choose: to untie the shackles of wrong,
to loosen the thongs of the yoke;
to set the abused free
and every yoke to tear down?
(7) Is it not to break with the hungry your bread
and the afflicted homeless to bring home?
When you see the naked to clothe them
and from your own flesh not to shrink?
(8) Then will burst forth like the dawn your light
and your healing quickly will spring up.
It will walk before you, your righteousness;
the glory of Adonai will be your rearguard.
(9) Then you will call on Adonai and he will answer;
you will cry and he will say: Here I am.

If you banish from you the yoke,
the pointing finger and the speaking of evil
(10) if you offer to the hungry your soul ¹
and the soul of the afflicted you satisfy,
like dawn in the darkness your light will shine
your gloom will be like noon.

(11) Adonai will guide you continually
and satisfy in the dry places your soul;
your bones he will make strong
and you will be like a garden well-watered,
like a gush of water;
its waters will not fail.
(12) They will build from you the ruins of old
foundations age-old you will reset;
and you shall be called "mender of the breach",
"restorer of paths in which to dwell".

Translated from the Hebrew by Johanna van Wijk-Bos

Interpretative Paraphrase

(1) Utter a guttural cry; don't hold back.
Let the sound blast like a ram's horn.
Tell my people that they are in revolt;
tell the descendants of Jacob they have totally missed the mark.
( 2) They say that it's me they seek day after day,
that they delight to know my ways
as if they were a faithful nation,
one that has not abandoned God's sense of what is just.
They ask me what judgements are clearly right;
they claim to desire closeness to God.

(3) They ask, Why have we acted religiously by fasting
when you don't even seem to notice?
We humiliate our inmost beings
and you don't apparently know what we are doing!
Look, God replies, on the very day you are fasting you do what you please;
you even force those who work for you to work harder and harder.
(4) You can see for yourselves that your fasting ends up
in quarrels and struggles,
in striking out with a cruel fist.
The fasting you do today (hoping to make your voice heard on high)
is not real fasting.

(5) Do you think this is the fast that I have chosen:
a day of so-called self-humiliation?
Is it to bow one's head like a bent bulrush,
or spreading ashes and sitting in sackcloth?
Do you call this fasting
and a day pleasing to the LORD?²

(6) Is not the real fast I have chosen: to break the chains of injustice,
to unfasten the leather straps of slavery's yoke,
to release the crushed to freedom
and pull off every single yoke?
(7) Is not real fasting also sharing your bread with those who are starving,
and bringing the humble and homeless into your own homes?
Is it not clothing the naked when you see them -
rather than hiding yourself from those who are your own flesh, your own kin?
(8) When you take these actions, then your light, your new day,
will break open like the dawn
and your own wounded self will heal immediately.
Then also the rightness of your way will precede you
and the glory of the LORD will follow you.
(9) When you call out, the LORD will respond;
when you cry for help, the LORD will say, I am right here.

If you eradicate from your lives the yoke of tyranny,
finger pointing and false accusations,
(10) if you also give your very selves to the hungry
and satisfy the inner needs of the afflicted,
then the radiance of a new day will shatter your darkness
and your gloom will become as noon.

(11) The LORD himself will lead you on and on.
He will satisfy your deepest needs
as one appeases a raving person lost in a vast desert.
Your very bones will be invigorated
and you will be as fresh as a luscious garden,
like a bubbling spring
whose gurgling never ends.
(12) Some of your people shall rebuild the ruins of the past.
You yourselves will again lay the foundations of many generations,
and you will be called "repairers of broken places",
"restorers of streets made livable again".

Paraphrased from the Hebrew by Arthur van Seters

Notes

1. Translator's Note: The emendation to "your bread" of many translations is to be rejected. The text is acceptable as it stands and the repetition of "soul" is important. See Day 7, Study 4.

2. Editors' Note: When the name of God, written consonantally as Yhwh, became the "ineffable name" that might not be uttered, Adonai (lord, master) was spoken instead when the Hebrew scriptures were read aloud in public worship. This reverential practice is reflected in standard English translations, and in Arthur van Seters' paraphrase below, which print the word LORD (in upper case).