(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

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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