(A)‘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,[a]
    (B)and oppress all your workers.
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.
(C)Is such the fast that I choose,
    (D)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?

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 58:3 Or pursue your own business

‘Why have we fasted,’(A) they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled(B) ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’(C)

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please(D)
    and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,(E)
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard(F) on high.
Is this the kind of fast(G) I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble(H) themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed(I)
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?(J)
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

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And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were (A)weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. (B)When Phinehas (C)the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand

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Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite(A) woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping(B) at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Phinehas(C) son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear(D) in his hand

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