Therefore, he saith again, concerning these things unto them, Why fast ye unto me, saith the Lord, so that your voice is heard to-day in its crying? This is not the fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord, for a man to humiliate his soul;
nor if ye bend your neck as a ring, and put under you sackcloth and ashes -- not even then will ye call it an acceptable fast.
But unto us he saith, Behold the fast which I have chosen, saith the Lord, not that a man should humiliate his soul, but that he should loose every bond of unrighteousness, and untie the knots of the compacts of violence; set at liberty them that are bruised, and break every agreement of unrighteousness; break thy bread with the hungry, and if thou seest the naked, clothe him; bring them that are houseless into thy dwelling, and if thou seest a man that is lowly, despise him not, and turn not away from those of thy family;
then shall thy light break forth early, and thy garments shall spring up quickly, and justice shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall surround thee;
then shalt thou cry, and the Lord shall hearken unto thee; while thou art yet speaking he shall say, Lo, I am here: if thou put away from thee the chain and the false oath, and the word of murmuring, and givest thy bread unto the hungry with all thine heart, and hast compassion upon the soul that is lowly.
The long-suffering God therefore having seen beforehand that the people whom he had prepared for his beloved would believe in simplicity, showed to us beforehand concerning all these things, that we should not come as strangers to their law.