46 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
## Fasting as Yahweh Chooses
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###### 1
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"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.
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###### 2
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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.
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###### 3
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'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.
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###### 4
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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.
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###### 5
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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?
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###### 6
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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?
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###### 7
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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?
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###### 8
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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.
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###### 9
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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,
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###### 10
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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.
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###### 11
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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.
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###### 12
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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.
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## Keeping the Sabbath
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###### 13
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"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,
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###### 14
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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."
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