Isaiah 58

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The fast that Yahweh chooses

¹ Cry aloud, do not hold back; lift up your voice like a shofar, and declare to My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins. ² Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, like a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the justice of its Elohim; they ask of Me righteous judgments, they delight in drawing near to Elohim. ³ "Why have we fasted, and You do not see? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?" See, on the day of your fast you find your own pleasure, and you oppress all your workers. ⁴ See, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with a wicked fist. Fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. ⁵ Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to Yahweh?

⁶ Is not this the fast that I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? ⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly; your righteousness will go before you; the glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard. ⁹ Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, ¹⁰ if you pour out your soul for the hungry and satisfy the soul of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom will be as the noonday. ¹¹ And Yahweh will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in scorched places, and make your bones strong; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. ¹² And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the foundations of many generations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.

The Shabbat a delight

¹³ If you turn away your foot from the Shabbat, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Shabbat a delight, the holy day of Yahweh honorable, and honor it, not going your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, ¹⁴ then you will delight yourself in Yahweh, and I will make you ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.

Notes

• 58:3 "Afflicted our souls" is the Torah's phrase for the Day of Atonement, "you shall afflict your souls" (Leviticus 23:27), and Scripture links it with fasting: "I afflicted my soul with fasting" (Psalm 35:13). The people keep the outward fast, yet go on with their own business and oppress their workers, and Yahweh answers that such a fast is not heard on high (verse 4).
• 58:6 Yahweh does not reject fasting, which His Torah commands on the Day of Atonement; He rejects a fast that leaves the oppressed in their chains. The fast He chooses loosens bonds and breaks yokes (verse 6) and feeds, shelters and clothes the poor (verse 7). When Yeshua read from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth, Luke's quotation also takes in the line of this verse on setting the oppressed free (Luke 4:18).
• 58:7 "Share" is literally "break" (paros): breaking one's bread for the hungry. "Your own flesh" means your own kin, as Laban said to Jacob, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh!" (Genesis 29:14). Yeshua's words about feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger and clothing the naked echo this verse (Matthew 25:35-36).
• 58:9 "Here I am" (hinneni) is the answer Abraham gave when Elohim called him, "Here I am" (Genesis 22:1), the word of a servant ready to obey. Here Yahweh Himself says it to those who call on Him.
• 58:13 The Shabbat is pictured as holy ground: Israel turns its foot back from trampling Yahweh's day with its own business, because He calls it "My holy day." "Speaking your own words" is literally "speaking a word" (the "your" carries over from the two lines before); the Damascus Document, known from the Dead Sea Scrolls, already forbids foolish or empty talk on the Shabbat, and later Jewish tradition (Talmud Shabbat 113a-b) learned from this verse that Shabbat speech should not be like weekday speech. Far from a burden, the day of "Remember the Shabbat day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8) is to be called a delight.
• 58:14 "A delight" (oneg) in verse 13 and "you will delight yourself" (titannag) here come from the same root: whoever calls the Shabbat a delight finds his delight in Yahweh Himself (compare Job 22:26). "Ride on the high places of the earth" repeats the Song of Moses, "He made him ride on the high places of the earth" (Deuteronomy 32:13), and "the heritage of Jacob" is the land promised to him (Genesis 28:13).

Isaiah 57 · Isaiah 59

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