Isaiah 58
58
True Religion
1Shout the message!
Don't hold back.
Say to my people Israel:
You've sinned! You've turned
against the Lord.
2Day after day, you worship him
and seem eager to learn
his teachings.
You act like a nation
that wants to do right
by obeying his laws.
You ask him about justice,
and say you enjoy
worshiping the Lord.
3You wonder why the Lord
pays no attention
when you go without eating
and act humble.
But on those same days
that you give up eating,
you think only of yourselves#58.3 you think … yourselves: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
and abuse your workers.
4You even get angry
and ready to fight.
No wonder God won't listen
to your prayers!
5Do you think the Lord
wants you to give up eating
and to act as humble
as a bent-over bush?
Or to dress in sackcloth
and sit in ashes?
Is this really what he wants
on a day of worship?
6I'll tell you
what it really means
to worship the Lord.
Remove the chains of prisoners
who are bound unjustly.
Free those who are abused!
7 #
Mt 25.34. Share your food with everyone
who is hungry;
share your home
with the poor and homeless.
Give clothes to those in need;
don't turn away your relatives.
8Then your light will shine
like the dawning sun, and you
will quickly be healed.
Your honesty#58.8 honesty: Or “honest leader.” will protect you
as you advance,
and the glory of the Lord
will defend you from behind.
9When you beg the Lord for help,
he will answer, “Here I am!”
Don't mistreat others
or falsely accuse them
or say something cruel.
10Give your food to the hungry
and care for the homeless.
Then your light will shine
in the dark;
your darkest hour will be
like the noonday sun.
11The Lord will always guide you
and provide good things to eat
when you are in the desert.
He will make you healthy.
You will be like a garden
that has plenty of water
or like a stream
that never runs dry.
12You will rebuild those houses
left in ruins for years;
you will be known
as a builder and repairer
of city walls and streets.
13But first, you must start
respecting the Sabbath
as a joyful day of worship.
You must stop doing and saying
whatever you please
on this special day.
14Then you will truly enjoy
knowing the Lord.
He will let you rule
from the highest mountains
and bless you with the land
of your ancestor Jacob.
The Lord has spoken!
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Isaiah 58: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Isaias (Isaiah) 58
58
1CRY, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings and the house of Jacob their sins.
2For they seek me from day to day and desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God. They ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God.
3Why have we fasted: and thou hast not regarded? Have we humbled our souls: and thou hast not taken notice? Behold, in the day of your fast your own will is found: and you exact of all your debtors.
4Behold, you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.
5Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day? Is this it: To wind his head about like a circle and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Wilt thou call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress. Let them that are broken go free: and break asunder every burden.
7Deal thy bread to the hungry and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him and despise not thy own flesh.
8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.
9Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear; thou shalt cry, and he shall say: Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee and cease to stretch out the finger and to speak that which profiteth not.
10When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.
11And the Lord will give thee rest continually and will fill thy soul with brightness and deliver thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail
12And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in thee. Thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation and generation: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest.
13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day and call the sabbath delightful and the holy of the Lord glorious and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways and thy own will is not found, to speak a word:
14Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.