Isaiah 58:1-3

True and False Fasting

¹ "Cry aloud; do not hold back;
_c lift up your voice like a trumpet;
_d declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
² _e Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
³ _f 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, _1
g and oppress all your workers.

1. Cross References
   Leviticus 25:9
   Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
   Joel 2:1
   Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near.
   
2. Cross References
   Micah 3:8
   But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
   
3. Cross References
   Isaiah 1:11
   What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord ; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.
   Isaiah 29:13
   And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.
   Zechariah 7:5 - 6
   Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?
   
4. Cross References
   Malachi 3:14
   You have said, 'It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?
   
5. Cross References
   Isaiah 60:17
   Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.
   Nehemiah 5:1 - 8
   Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.