Observances of Fasts
“aCry loudly, do not hold back;Raise your voice like a trumpet,And declare to My people their bwrongdoing,And to the house of Jacob their sins.Is 40:6Is 43:27; 50:1; 59:122 “Yet they aseek Me day by day and delight to know My ways,As a nation that has done brighteousnessAnd chas not forsaken the ordinance of their God.They ask Me for just decisions,They delight din the nearness of God.Is 1:11; Titus 1:16Is 48:1; Jer 7:9, 10Is 1:4, 28; 59:13Ps 119:151; Is 29:13; 57:3; James 4:83 ‘Why have we afasted and You do not see?Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not 1notice?’Behold, on the bday of your fast you find your desire,And oppress all your workers.Lit knowMal 3:14; Luke 18:12Is 22:12, 13; Zech 7:5, 64 “Behold, you fast for contention and astrife, and to strike with a wicked fist.You do not fast like you have done today to bmake your voice heard on high!Is 3:14, 15; 59:6Is 1:15; 59:2; Joel 2:12-145 “Is it a fast like this that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?Is it for bowing 1one’s head like a reedAnd for spreading out asackcloth and ashes as a bed?Will you call this a fast, even an bacceptable day to the LORD?Lit his1 Kin 21:27Is 49:8; 61:26 “Is this not the fast that I choose:To arelease the bonds of wickedness,To undo the ropes of the yoke,And to blet the oppressed go free,And cbreak every yoke?Neh 5:10-12; Jer 34:8Is 1:17Is 58:97 “Is it not to abreak your bread 1with the hungryAnd bbring the homeless poor into the house;When you see the cnaked, to cover him;And not to dhide yourself from your own flesh?Lit forJob 31:19, 20; Is 58:10; Ezek 18:7, 16Is 16:3, 4; Heb 13:2Matt 25:35, 36; Luke 3:11Deut 22:1-4; Luke 10:31, 328 “Then your alight will break out like the dawn,And your brecovery will spring up quickly;And your crighteousness will go before you;The glory of the dLORD will be your rear guard.Is 58:10Is 30:26; 33:24; Jer 30:17; 33:6Ps 85:13; Is 62:1Ex 14:19; Is 52:129 “Then you will acall, and the LORD will answer;You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’If you bremove the yoke from your midst,The 1cpointing of the finger and dspeaking wickedness,I.e., an abusive gesturePs 50:15; Is 55:6; 65:24Is 58:6Prov 6:13Ps 12:2; Is 59:1310 And if you aoffer yourself to the hungryAnd satisfy the 1need of the afflicted,Then your blight will rise in darkness,And your gloom will become like midday.Or soulDeut 15:7; Is 58:7Job 11:17; Ps 37:6; Is 42:16; 58:811 “And the aLORD will continually guide you,And bsatisfy your 1desire in scorched places,And cgive strength to your bones;And you will be like a dwatered garden,And like a espring of water whose waters do not 2fail.Or soulOr deceiveIs 49:10; 57:18Ps 107:9; Is 41:17Is 66:14Song 4:15; Is 27:3; Jer 31:12John 4:14; 7:3812 “Those from among you will arebuild the ancient ruins;You will braise up the age-old foundations;And you will be called the repairer of the cbreach,The restorer of the 1streets in which to dwell.Lit pathsIs 49:8; 61:4; Ezek 36:10Is 44:28Is 30:13; Amos 9:11
Keeping the Sabbath
13 “If, because of the Sabbath, you arestrain your footFrom doing as you wish on My holy day,And call the Sabbath a bpleasure, and the holy day of the LORD honorable,And honor it, desisting from your cown ways,From seeking your own pleasureAnd dspeaking your own word,Ex 31:16, 17; 35:2, 3; Is 56:2, 4, 6; Jer 17:21-27Ps 27:4; 42:4; 84:2, 10Is 55:8Is 59:1314 Then you will take adelight in the LORD,And I will make you ride bon the heights of the earth;And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,For the cmouth of the LORD has spoken.”Job 22:26; Is 61:10Deut 32:13; 33:29; Is 33:16; Hab 3:19Is 1:20; 40:5