[1] Make a loud cry, do not be quiet, let your voice be sounding like a
horn, and make clear to my people their evil doings, and to the family of
Jacob their sins. [2] Though they make prayer to me every day, and take
pleasure in the knowledge of my ways: like a nation which has done
righteousness, and has not given up the rules of their God, they make
requests to me for the right orders, it is their delight to come near to
God. [3] They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you do not see
it? why have we kept ourselves from pleasure, and you take no note of it?
If, in the days when you keep from food, you take the chance to do your
business, and get in your debts; [4] If keeping from food makes you quickly
angry, ready for fighting and giving blows with evil hands; your holy days
are not such as to make your voice come to my ears on high. [5] Have I
given orders for such a day as this? a day for keeping yourselves from
pleasure? is it only a question of the bent head, of putting on haircloth,
and being seated in the dust? is this what seems to you a holy day,
well-pleasing to the Lord? [6] Is not this the holy day for which I have
given orders: to let loose those who have wrongly been made prisoners, to
undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the crushed go free, and every yoke
be broken? [7] Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to let
the poor who have no resting-place come into your house? to put a robe on
the unclothed one when you see him, and not to keep your eyes shut for fear
of seeing his flesh? [8] Then will light be shining on you like the
morning, and your wounds will quickly be well: and your righteousness will
go before you, and the glory of the Lord will come after you. [9] Then at
the sound of your voice, the Lord will give an answer; at your cry he will
say, Here am I. If you take away from among you the yoke, the putting out
of the finger of shame, and the evil word; [10] And if you give your bread
to those in need of it, so that the troubled one may have his desire; then
you will have light in the dark, and your night will be as the full light
of the sun: [11] And the Lord will be your guide at all times; in dry
places he will give you water in full measure, and will make strong your
bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like an ever-flowing
spring. [12] And your sons will be building again the old waste places: you
will make strong the bases of old generations: and you will be named, He
who puts up the broken walls, and, He who makes ready the ways for use.
[13] If you keep the Sabbath with care, not doing your business on my holy
day; and if the Sabbath seems to you a delight, and the new moon of the
Lord a thing to be honoured; and if you give respect to him by not doing
your business, or going after your pleasure, or saying unholy words; [14]
Then the Lord will be your delight; and I will put you on the high places
of the earth; and I will give you the heritage of Jacob your father: for
the mouth of the Lord has said it.
