Isaiah 58 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Give a roar from the throat! Don't hold back! Shout out like a trumpet! Announce to my people how rebellious they are; denounce to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
1 “Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Every day they come to me, pleased to know my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right and follows the laws of their God! They ask me to treat them right; they like to be close to their God.
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.
3 “Didn't you see that we fasted?” they ask. “Didn't you notice how we denied ourselves?” That's because whenever you fast you still do whatever you want, and you treat your workers badly.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers.
4 Can't you see that when you're fasting you quarrel and argue, and end up having a vicious fistfight? When you fast like this you can't expect your prayers to be heard on high!
4 Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I want when people act out their humility by bowing their heads down like a reed and by lying around in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day the Lord appreciates?
5 Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?
6 No, this is the fast I want: set free those who have been unjustly imprisoned, untie the cords of the yoke used to burden people, set free those who are oppressed, and get rid of every form of abuse.
6 “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
7 Share your food with the hungry, take the poor and homeless into your house. When you see people naked, give them clothes, and don't reject your own relatives.
7 Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light will shine out like the dawn, and you will be healed quickly; your salvation will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will go behind you.
8 Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and Yahweh’s glory will be your rear guard.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer; when you cry out for help, the Lord will say, “I'm here.” If you get rid of oppression among you, if you stop pointing the finger and slandering others,
9 Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;
10 if you dedicate yourselves to helping the hungry and give the poor what they need, then your light will shine out in the darkness, and your night will be like the sun at noon.
10 and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;
11 The Lord will always lead you; he will give you all you need in you in a desolate land; he will make you strong again. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring that never runs dry.
11 and Yahweh will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail.
12 Some among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore generations-old foundations. You will be called the Repairer of the Break in the Wall, the Restorer of Life's Pathways.
12 Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.
13 If you make sure you don't break the Sabbath by doing whatever you please on my holy day, if you say the Sabbath brings you pleasure and the Lord's day is to be honored, and if you honor it by leaving aside your own ways, by not doing whatever you please, and by avoiding chatting about ordinary things,
13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable, and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,
14 then you'll find the Lord is the one who truly makes you happy, and I will give you high positions on the earth and give you what I promised to Jacob, your forefather. I, the Lord, have spoken.
14 then you will delight yourself in Yahweh, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.
Cross references (14)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Titus 2:15; Hosea 8:1; Acts 20:26–27; Ezekiel 3:17–21; Acts 7:51–52
- 2 Titus 1:16; Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7–9; Mark 4:16–17; 1 Peter 2:1–2
- 3 Luke 18:9–12; Malachi 3:14; Proverbs 28:9; Matthew 20:11–12; Leviticus 16:29
- 4 1 Kings 21:9–13; Matthew 6:16–18; Proverbs 21:27; Isaiah 59:2; Luke 20:47
- 5 Daniel 9:3–19; Zechariah 7:5; Isaiah 49:8; Esther 4:16; Isaiah 61:2
- 6 Nehemiah 5:10–12; Isaiah 58:9; 1 Timothy 6:1; Jeremiah 34:8–11; Micah 3:2–4
- 7 Matthew 25:35–45; Ezekiel 18:7; Luke 3:11; 1 John 3:17–18; Proverbs 28:27
- 8 Isaiah 52:12; Jeremiah 33:6; Psalm 37:6; Jeremiah 30:17; Malachi 4:2
- 9 Jeremiah 29:12–13; Psalm 50:15; Isaiah 65:24; Psalm 91:15; Matthew 7:7–8
- 10 Proverbs 11:24–25; Isaiah 42:16; Psalm 37:6; Isaiah 58:7–8; Job 11:17
- 11 John 4:14; Jeremiah 31:12; Psalm 32:8; Isaiah 49:10; John 16:13
- 12 Isaiah 61:4; Amos 9:14; Ezekiel 36:33; Amos 9:11; Nehemiah 2:17
- 13 Jeremiah 17:21–27; Psalm 92:1–2; Isaiah 56:2–6; Nehemiah 13:15–22; Revelation 1:10
- 14 Deuteronomy 32:13; Job 22:26; Isaiah 1:19–20; Isaiah 33:16; Habakkuk 3:18–19
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… raises us from the dead, and restores the inheritance of the fathers, as Isaiah again says: "And thou shall be confident in the Lord, and He will cause thee to pass over the whole earth, and feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father." This is what the Lord declared: "Happy are those servants whom the Lord when He …
… makest, as Thou givest joy and ability,--let "truth spring out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven," and let there be "lights in the firmament." Let us break our bread to the hungry, and let us bring the houseless poor to our house. Let us clothe the naked, and despise not those of our own flesh.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
Then thou shalt call upon me, and I will give ear unto thee; whilst thou art yet speaking, I will say, Lo! here I am." And who is able to do all this?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… are at work with our voices, when we say, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." And we are at work with our hands when we do this, "Break thy bread to the hungry, and bring the houseless poor into thine house. Shut up alms in the heart of a poor man, and it shall intercede for …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)
"Bring in the poor that are cast out to thy house; if thou seest one naked, clothe him, and them that belong to thy seed thou shalt not overlook." Now in our late discourse which we made unto you when declaring the rewards, we showed the wealth arising from these acts; but now let us see if any of the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)