[7] “There is no result.”—Cheyne.
[8] “Thou hast yet found strength in thine hand, therefore thou wast not discouraged.”—Arnold. “Thou didst get renewal of thy strength, therefore thou feltest not weak.”—Cheyne.
[9] “Thy medley of gods.”—Cheyne.
[10] “For his unjust gain,” lit. “for the iniquity of his gain.”—Cheyne.
PART III.
first prophecy.—chap. lviii.
The False Worship and the True.
1. Cry with full throat, hold not back; lift up thy voice like a bugle, and proclaim to My people their apostasy, and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2. And they seek Me[1] day by day, and desire to learn My ways, like a nation which has done righteousness; they desire the drawing near of Elohim.
3. Wherefore do we fast and Thou seest not, afflict our soul and Thou regardest not? Behold, on the day of your fasting ye carry on your business, and ye oppress all your labourers. 4. Behold, ye fast with strife and quarrelling, and with smiting of the fist maliciously closed: ye do not fast now to make your voice audible on high.[2]
5. Can such things as these pass for a fast that I have pleasure in, as a day for a man to afflict his soul? To bow down his head like a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under him—dost thou call this a fast and an acceptable day for Jehovah? 6. Is not this a fast that I have pleasure in: to loose coils of wickedness, to untie the bands[3] of the yoke, and for sending away the oppressed as free, and that ye break every kind of yoke? 7. Is it not this, to break thy bread to the hungry, and to take the poor and houseless to thy home;[4] when thou seest a naked man that thou clothest him, and dost not deny thyself before thine own flesh?