Chapter 58
58:1 Cry, cease not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2 For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that has done justice, and has not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God.
58:3 Why have we fasted, and you have not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and you have not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.
58:4 Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.
58:5 Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day? Is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6 Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go free, and break asunder every burden.
58:7 Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the needy and the harborless into your house: when you shall see one naked, cover him, and despise not your own flesh.
58:8 Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall speedily arise, and your justice shall go before your face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather you up.
58:9 Then shall you call, and the Lord shall hear: you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you will take away the chain out of the midst of you, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profits not.
58:10 When you shall pour out your soul to the hungry, and shall satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall your light rise up in darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.
58:11 And the Lord your God will give you rest continually, and will fill your soul with brightness, and deliver your bones, and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail.
58:12 And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in you: you shall raise up the foundation of generation and generation: and you shall be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest.
58:13 If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while you dost not your own ways, and your own will is not found, to speak a word:
58:14 Then shall you be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift you up above the high places of the earth, and will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
1022 . Cry, cease not . Here he excludes a useless remedy, by which they wished to prepare themselves for salvation.
And first, he enjoins the duty of announcing, setting out the manner of announcing, that it be loud without fear suppressing it: cry , above: lift up your voice with strength, you that bring good tidings to Zion (Isa 40:9); that it be continuous: cease not , below: upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen all the day, and all the night, they shall never hold their peace (Isa 62:6); that it be clear and open: like a trumpet : let there be a trumpet in your throat (Hos 8:1). And the message of the announcement: show my people their wicked doings , as to greater sins, sins , as to common sins, above: to them that rejoice upon the brick walls, tell their stripes (Isa 16:7).
1023 . Second, the prophet, in the person of the Lord, excludes the useless remedy: for they seek me from day to day . And concerning this, he does two things:
first, he excludes the remedy in which they trusted;
second, he exhorts them to those things in which they were lacking: is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? (Isa 58:6).
1024 . Concerning the first, he does two things.
First, he shows the presumption of their confidence as to three things in which they trusted, namely, in the inquiry of sacred knowledge: for they seek me , in the Scriptures, and desire to know my ways , my precepts and desires, as a nation that has done justice , that is, as if they were prepared to do them: they speak one to another (Ezek 33:30). Again, in prayer: they ask of me the judgments , that is, that I might judge for them against their adversaries; they are willing to approach to God , with their mouth, above: this people draw near me with their mouth (Isa 29:13). Again, they trust in the observation of fasts: why have we fasted, and you have not regarded , as if you were grateful; have we humbled our souls , as to the circumstances of their fasts, in outward humiliation, and you have not taken notice , with the knowledge of approval: he labors in vain that serves God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances? (Mal 3:14).
1025 . Second, he shows rejection of these goods.
And first, the cause of rejection, which is the fault of the will: behold in the day of your fast your own will is found , in things which please the flesh: go not after your lusts (Sir 18:30). Also, the fault of cruelty: and you exact of all your debtors , literally, so that they could persist for a long time in litigating, or to its consecutive. Also, the fault of vanity, do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard , for the sake of the praise of men: but you when you shall pray, enter into your chamber, and having shut the door, pray to your Father (Matt 6:6). Or to make your cry to be heard , that is, if you wish that your prayer would be heard by God: hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to you (Ps 101[102]:2).
1026 . Second, he shows the insufficiency of these goods: is this such a fast as I have chosen , for God does not choose your punishment per se, neither as to the affliction of the flesh, which he touches on when he says: for a man to afflict his soul for the entire day ; nor as to the abjection of exterior humiliation, which he touches on where he says: to wind his head about like a circle , namely, to bend the head all the way to the feet, or in a circle as monks do, not in as much as it is ordained to the virtue of the mind: and when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad (Matt 6:16); rend your hearts, and not your garments (Joel 2:13).
1027 . Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? Here he brings in useful counsel.
And first, as to the zeal of piety towards one’s neighbor;
second, as to the worship of religious duty toward God: if you turn away (Isa 58:13).
Concerning the first, he does two things.
First, he sets out the counsel of piety, that calumnies should cease: loose the bands of wickedness , the false lawsuits, by which, like usurers, they cunningly bound the poor, undo the bundles , referring to the same thing, that oppress , as to the punishments to which they bound them; them that are broken , by long servitude; break asunder every burden , of servitude: they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, but with a finger of their own they will not move them (Matt 23:4).
And that they extend mercies, exhorting them to mercy as to the hungry: break your bread for the hungry , that is, if you have little; as to the homeless: and bring the needy and the harborless into your house ; as to the naked, when you shall see one naked, cover him : if I have denied to the poor what they desired (Job 31:16). And he sets out the cause of his exhortation: and despise not your own flesh , namely, because he is of the same species as you: visiting your species (Job 5:24).
1028 . Second, he shows the fruit of this counsel: then shall your light break forth .
And first, as to the efficacy of their merits, then as to the works of their virtues: then shall your light break forth as the morning , namely, your merits will appear clearly in the rewards, about which you now complain to the Lord because they are not yet seen; the glory of the Lord shall gather you up , from captivity, or in the protection of his mercy: he will bring forth your justice as the light, and your judgment as the noonday (Ps 36[37]:6). Then as to intercessions of prayer: then shall you call , above: at the voice of your cry, as soon as he shall hear, he will answer you (Isa 30:19).
1029 . Second, as to the attainment of goods.
And first, he returns to the meritorious work: if you will take away the chain , by which you oppress the poor, and cease to stretch out the finger , disparaging and threatening. When you shall pour out your soul to the hungry , through compassion, and shall satisfy the afflicted soul , through assistance in necessities.
1030 . Second, he promises the reward: then shall your light rise up .
And first, as to the multiplication of goods, setting out liberation from evils: then shall your light rise up in darkness , that is, adversity will be turned into the light of prosperity, ignorance into the light of knowledge, or sin into the light of knowledge, as to spiritual evils. And the Lord will give you rest , as to temporal evils: God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness (2 Cor 4:6); multiplication of interior, spiritual goods: he will fill your soul with brightness , namely, virtues or consolations, and deliver your bones , as to bodily goods: a cheerful and good heart (Sir 30:27); and multiplication of exterior goods: and you shall be like a watered garden , because of your prosperity, or an unfailing supply of all goods: how beautiful are your tabernacles, O Jacob (Num 24:5).
1031 . Second, as to the rebuilding of their homeland: and the places that have been desolate for ages , that is, namely, the cities of the desert in former times, shall be built , after their return from captivity; you shall raise up , rebuilding upon the old foundations, above: who say to Jerusalem: you shall be inhabited: and to the cities of Judah: you shall be built (Isa 44:26).
1032 . Third, as to the restoration of their reputation: and you shall be called the repairer of the fences , that is, impediments to sin; iniquity or into rest , namely, turning the paths of sin into rest: I will hedge up your way with thorns (Hos 2:6).
1033 . If you turn away your foot from the sabbath . Here he sets out counsel as to the worship of religious duty in the observation of the sabbath.
And first, he sets out the counsel: if you turn away your foot , lest you do prohibited works; and call the sabbath delightful , that is, celebrating this kind of sabbath, as to the exercise of good works: remember that you keep holy the sabbath day (Exod 20:8). Other versions have: called instead of call , and the sense is the same.
Second, he sets out the fruit: then shall you be delighted in the Lord , as to spiritual goods; and I will lift you up above the high places of the earth , leading you back to your land, which is mountainous; and will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father , as to the enjoyment of the goods of the land: then shall you abound in delights in the Almighty (Job 22:26).
1034 . Note on the words, lift up your voice like a trumpet (Isa 58:1), that preaching is a trumpet:
first, because it rouses to life: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise again incorruptible (1 Cor 15:52);
second, because it exhorts to battle: if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? (1 Cor 14:8);
third, because it announces the approach of a man, above: a noise shall be made with great trumpets (Isa 27:13);
fourth, because it calls to counsel: let there be a trumpet in your throat (Hos 8:1);
fifth, because it invites to a feast: blow up the trumpet on the new moon (Ps 80:4[81:3]).
1035 . Note also on the words, if you will take away the chain out of the midst of you (Isa 58:9), that there is a chain
first, of piety: for which I am an ambassador in a chain (Eph 6:20);
second, of iniquity: for they were all bound together with one chain of darkness (Wis 17:17);
third, of poverty: if they be conquered (Job 36:8);
fourth, of servitude: you have broken chains of wood (Jer 28:13);
fifth, of prison: out of prison and chains sometimes a man comes forth to a kingdom (Eccl 4:14).