CHAPTER 58
1 Cry thou, cease thou not; as a trump enhance thy voice, and show thou to my people their great trespasses, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 For they seek me from day into day, and they will to know my ways; as a folk, that hath done rightfulness [or rightwiseness], and that hath not forsaken the doom of their God; they pray me dooms of rightfulness [or rightwiseness], and they will to nigh to God.
3 Why fasted we, and thou beheldest not; we meeked our souls, and thou knewest not? Lo! your will is found in the day of your fasting, and ye ask all your debtors.
4 Lo! ye fast to chidings and strivings, and smite with the fist wickedly. Do not ye fast, as ye have unto this day, that your cry be heard on high.
5 Whether such is the fasting which I choose, a man to torment his soul by day? whether to bind his head as a circle, and to make ready a sackcloth and ashes? Whether thou shalt call this a fasting, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 Whether not this is more the fasting, which I choose? Unbind thou the bindings together of unpity, either of cruelty, release thou [the] burdens pressing down; deliver thou them free, that be broken, and break thou each burden.
7 Break thy bread to the hungry man, and bring into thine house needy men and harbourless; when thou seest a naked man, cover thou him, and despise not thy flesh, that is, brother or sister.
8 Then thy light shall break out as the morrowtide, and thine health shall rise full soon; and thy rightful-ness [or rightwiseness] shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee to rest.
9 Then thou shalt call to help, and the Lord shall hear; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Lo! I am present, for I am merciful, thy Lord God. If thou takest away the chain from the midst of thee, and ceasest to hold forth the finger, and to speak that that profiteth not;
10 when thou sheddest [or shalt pour] out thy soul, either thy will, to an hungry man, and [ful] fillest a soul that is tormented, thy light shall rise in darknesses, and thy darknesses shall be as midday.
11 And the Lord thy God shall give ever rest to thee, and shall [ful] fill thy soul with shinings, and shall deliver thy bones; and thou shalt be as a watered garden, and as a well of waters, whose waters shall not fail.
12 And the forsaken things of world’s shall be builded in thee, and thou shalt raise the foundaments of generation and generation; and thou shalt be called, A builder of hedges, turning away the paths of wicked-nesses.
13 If thou turnest away thy foot from the sabbath, to do thy [own] will in mine holy day; and callest the sabbath delicate, and holy, the glorious of the Lord; and glorifiest him, while thou doest not thy ways, and thy will is not found, that thou speak a word;
14 then thou shalt delight on the Lord, and I shall raise thee [up] on the highness of the earth, and I shall feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father; for why the mouth of the Lord spake.