The Lantern

Isaiah58

Cry aloud, do not spare, Like a horn, lift high thy voice,—And declare To my people, their transgression, and To the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet, me—day by day, do they seek, And in the knowledge of my ways, they delight,—Like a nation that had done righteousness, And the justice of their God, had not forsaken They ask of me the just regulations, In approaching God, they delight.

Wherefore have we Fasted and thou hast not seen? Humbled our soul, and thou wouldst take no note? Lo! in the day of your fast, ye take pleasure, But all your toilers, ye drive on!

Lo! for strife and contention, ye fast, And to smite with the fist of lawlessness,—Ye shall not fast as to-day, To cause to be heard on high your voice!

Like this, shall the fast be that I choose, A day for the son of earth to humble his soul? Is it to bow down as a rush his head, And sackcloth and ashes, to spread out? Is it, this, thou wilt call a fast, Or a day of acceptance with Yahweh?

Is not, this, the fast that I must ever choose—To unbind the tight cords of lawlessness, To unloose the bands of the yoke,—and To let the crushed go free, and That every yoke, ye tear off?

Is it not to break unto the hungry, thy bread, And the thrust-out oppressed, that thou bring into a home,—When thou seest one naked, that thou cover him, And from thine own flesh, shalt not hide thyself?

Then, shall break forth, as the dawn, thy light, And thy new flesh shall speedily grow,—Then shall go before thee, thy righteousness, the glory of Yahweh shall bring up thy rear:

Then, shalt thou Call, and Yahweh, will answer, Cry out, and he will say, Behold me! If thou remove, out of thy midst the yoke, The pointing of the finger, and The speaking of iniquity;

And shalt let thine own soul go out to the hungry, And the soul of the oppressed, thou shalt satisfy, Then shall break forth in darkness thy light, And thy thick darkness, become as the splendour of noon;

Then will Yahweh guide thee continually, And will satisfy, [even] in scorched regions thine own soul, Yea thy very bones, will he invigorate,—So shall thou become like a garden well—watered, And like a spring of water whose waters do not deceive;

And they who come of thee shall build the wastes of age-past times, And as for the foundations of generation after generation, thou shalt rear them up,—So shalt thou be called—A Repairer of broken walls, A Restorer of paths leading home.

If thou turn back. From the sabbath thy foot, From doing thine own pleasure on my holy day,—And shall call—The sabbath, An exquisite delight, The holy day of Yahweh, A day to be honoured, And so shall honour it rather—Than do thine own ways, Than take thine own pleasure or Than speak thine own word,

Then, shalt thou rest thine own exquisite delight upon Yahweh, …And I will cause thee to ride over the high places of the land,—And will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father, For the mouth of Yahweh, hath spoken.