Cry {Hebrew: with the throat.}aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near unto God.
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and {Or, oppress all your laborers}exact all your labors.
Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: {Or, ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make &c.}ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearward.
Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am.
If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly;
and if thou {Or, bestow on the hungry that which thy soul desireth}draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noonday;
and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in {Or, drought}dry places, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt honor {Or, him}it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.
Querverweise zu Jesaja 58,3 Jes 58,3
And God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar.
And it shall be a statute for ever unto you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home-born, or the stranger that sojourneth among you:
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three whole weeks.
Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the {Or, deputies}rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I held a great assembly against them.
I was wroth with my people, I profaned mine inheritance, and gave them into thy hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that abhor justice, and pervert all equity.
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.
It is a sabbath of solemn rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; it is a statute for ever.
I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law,Even his prayer is an abomination.
And it came to pass in the course of those many days, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month, even these seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
And when ye eat, and when ye drink, {Or, are not ye they that eat &c.}do not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
Should ye not hear the words which Jehovah cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?
Howbeit on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah.
{Or, For word came unto the king &c.}And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
And he made proclamation and {Hebrew: said}published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;
but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.
that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, that is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondmen of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
And all the princes and all the people obeyed, that had entered into the covenant, that every one should let his man-servant, and every one his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondmen of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:
but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
Therefore the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of {Hebrew: bondmen.}bondage, saying,
At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, that {Or, hath sold himself}hath been sold unto thee, and hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.
And ye were now turned, and had done that which is right in mine eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:
but ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and ye brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah: ye have not hearkened unto me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim unto you a liberty, saith Jehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be {Or, a terror unto}tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth.
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked {Or, in mourning apparel}mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?
When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting,That was to my reproach.
But that {Greek: bondservant.}servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him a hundred {The word in the Greek denotes a coin worth about eight pence half-penny, or nearly seventeen cents.}shillings: and he laid hold on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest.
So his fellow-servant fell down and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee.
And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay that which was due.
So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were exceeding sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
Then his lord called him unto him, and saith to him, Thou wicked {Greek: bondservant.}servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou besoughtest me:
shouldest not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow-servant, even as I had mercy on thee?
And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due.
So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.
And when they received it, they murmured against the householder,
saying, These last have spent but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, who have borne the burden of the day and the {Or, hot wind}scorching heat.
But he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, and I never transgressed a commandment of thine; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:
And he spake also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set {Greek: the rest.}all others at nought:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a {See marginal note on chapter 3:12.}publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this {See marginal note on chapter 3:12.}publican.
I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I get.