## Fasting as Yahweh Chooses 

###### 1
"Call out from your throat, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet, And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins. 

###### 2
Yet they seek Me day by day and find pleasure in knowing My ways, As a nation that has done righteousness And has not forsaken the judgment of their God. They ask Me _for_ righteous judgments; They find pleasure in the nearness of God. 

###### 3
'Why have we fasted and You do not see? _Why_ have we afflicted our souls and You do not know?' Behold, on the day of your fast you find _your_ desire, And oppress all your workers. 

###### 4
Behold, you fast for contention and quarreling and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like _you do_ today to make your voice heard on high. 

###### 5
Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to afflict himself? Is it for bowing one's head like a reed And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to Yahweh? 

###### 6
Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To release the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke? 

###### 7
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the afflicted homeless into the house; When you see the naked, you cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 

###### 8
Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard. 

###### 9
Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, 

###### 10
And if you offer your soul to the hungry And satisfy the soul of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness And your thick darkness _will become_ like midday. 

###### 11
And Yahweh will continually guide you, And satisfy your soul in scorched places, And fortify your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. 

###### 12
Those from among you will rebuild the ancient waste places; You will raise up the foundations of _past_ generation upon generation; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the paths _for one_ to inhabit. 

## Keeping the Sabbath 

###### 13
"If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your _own_ desire on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy _day_ of Yahweh honorable, And honor it, by not doing your _own_ ways, By not finding your _own_ desire And speaking _your own_ word, 

###### 14
Then you will take delight in Yahweh, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you _with_ the inheritance of Jacob your father, For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken."