True and False Fasting
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"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,
g and oppress all your workers.
4
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
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h Is such the fast that I choose,
i a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6
"Is not this the fast that I choose:
j to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps k of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7
Is it not l to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
m and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8
n Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
o and your healing shall spring up speedily;
p your righteousness shall go before you;
q the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If you take away r the yoke from your midst,
s the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10
t if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
n then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11
And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be u like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12
v And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.
13
w "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking x your own pleasure, or talking idly;
14
then you shall take delight in the Lord,
y and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
z I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
a for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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?
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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.
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Cross References
Zechariah 7:5
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?
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Cross References
Leviticus 16:29
And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.
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Cross References
Nehemiah 5:10 - 12
Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest.
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Cross References
Isaiah 58:9
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.
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Cross References
Isaiah 58:10
If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
Ezekiel 18:7
Does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment.
Matthew 25:35
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
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Cross References
Nehemiah 5:5
Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.
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Cross References
Job 11:17
And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 30:17
For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: 'It is Zion, for whom no one cares!
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Cross References
Psalms 85:13
Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.
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Cross References
Isaiah 52:12
For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
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Cross References
Isaiah 58:6
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
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Cross References
Proverbs 6:13
Winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger.
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Cross References
Isaiah 58:7 - 8
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
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Cross References
Isaiah 58:8
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 31:12
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.
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Cross References
Isaiah 61:4
They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Isaiah 65:21
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Ezra 6:14
And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
Nehemiah 4:6
So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
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Cross References
Isaiah 56:2
Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
Nehemiah 13:15 - 21
In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food.
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Cross References
Isaiah 58:3
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, and oppress all your workers.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 32:13
He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 50:19
I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
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Cross References
Isaiah 1:20
But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.