58:1 Cry a aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgression, and the house of
Jacob their sins.
(a) The Lord thus speaks to the prophet willing him to use
all diligence and severity to rebuke the hypocrites.
58:2 Yet they b 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 the ordinances of
justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
(b) They will seem to worship me and have outward holiness.
58:3c Why have we fasted, [say they], and thou seest not?
[why] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no
knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find d
pleasure, and exact all your labours.
(c) He sets forth the malice and disdain of the hypocrites,
who grudge against God, if their works are not
accepted.
(d) Thus he convinces the hypocrites by the second table
and by their duty toward their neighbour, that they
have neither faith nor religion.
58:4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with
the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as [ye do this]
day, to make your voice to be e heard on high.
(e) So long as you use contention and oppression, your
fasting and prayers will not be heard.
58:6 [Is] not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the
bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let
the oppressed go free, and that ye break every f yoke?
(f) That you leave off all your extortions.
58:7 [Is it] not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou
shouldest bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?
when thou seest the naked, that thou shouldest cover him;
and that thou shouldest not hide thyself from g thy own
flesh?
(g) For in him you see yourself as in a mirror.
58:8 Then shall thy (h) light break forth as the morning, and
thy health shall spring forth speedily: and thy i
righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD
shall be thy rear guard.
(h) That is, the prosperous estate with which God will
bless you.
(i) The testimony of your goodness will appear before God
and man.
58:9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt
cry, and he shall say, Here I [am]. If thou shalt take away
from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the
k finger, and speaking vanity;
(k) By which is meant all manner of injury.
58:10 And [if] thou shalt l draw out thy soul to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise
in m obscurity, and thy darkness [be] as the noonday:
(l) That is, have compassion on their miseries.
(m) Your adversity will be turned into prosperity.
58:12 And [they that shall be] of thee shall build the old n
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.
(n) Signifying that of the Jews would come such as would
build again the ruins of Jerusalem and Judea: but
chiefly this is meant of the spiritual Jerusalem,
whose builders were the Apostles.
58:13 If thou shalt o turn away thy foot from the sabbath,
[from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the
sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and
shalt honour him, not doing thy own ways, nor finding thy
own pleasure, nor speaking [thy own] words:
(o) If you refrain yourself from your wicked works.
