Isaiah 58:1-14 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Fasting, False and True. Yahweh bids the prophet explain to His people wherein their sin lies. Daily they attend the Temple, seeking to know His will for all the world as though their one aim were to do it! They question the priests as to correct ritualrighteous ordinances and delight in daily worship. Why, they ask, when we fast does Yahweh take no notice of our pleas? Because on their fast-days they pursue their business so render rather than pleasure and exact their debts (so emend (cf. LXX) the dubious word rendered labours). Thus their fast-days are marked by strife and oppression. Such fasting will not speed their prayers on high! Yahweh desires as a fast not self-mortification, gestures of woe, symbols of humiliation: but the loosing of unjust bonds, and the freeing of the crushed; the feeding of the hungry (cf. Nehemiah 5:17) and the housing of the homeless; the clothing of the naked, and brotherly association with their poor fellow-countrymentheir own flesh. Thus would come prosperity and healing. Their right-doing would be as their vanguard and Yahweh Himself their rearguard. He would answer their petitions without delay. Let them put away oppression, contemptuous action, and wicked speech; let them give their bread (so some MSS and VSS for soul) to the hungry: and their deep gloom shall be exchanged for noonday light. Yahweh will be their guide, giving them water in arid regions, renewing their strength (so emend the dubious Heb. make strong thy bones). They shall flourish like an irrigated garden, or an oasis whose springs do not disappear in the hot season. Zion's sons will rebuild her ancient ruins, restoring the time-honoured foundations. Isaiah 58:13 f. bears the marks of a later corollary to this discourse on fasting. It consists largely of quotation, and differs considerably in LXX. If thou regard the Sabbath as holy ground, from which thou turnest a profane foot, refraining from business; if thou callest the Sabbath thy delight and the new moon of Yahweh (for the combination cf. Isaiah 1:13) thy joy (emending the strange and tautologous expression the holy of the Lord honourable), refraining from business and idle talk: then thou shalt have thy delight in Yahweh, and I will cause thee to surmount all difficulties (cf. Deuteronomy 32:13) and assuredly cause thee to enjoy the inheritance of thine ancestors.

Isaiah 58:8. healing: the new flesh which forms in the healing of a wound.

Isaiah 58:11. spring of water: rather, a place of springs.

Isaiah 58:12. Read, And thy sons shall build. paths: perhaps read, ruins.

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 58:1

Isaiah 58:1-14

1 Cry aloud,a spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.b

4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a dayc for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavyd burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.

9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought,e and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.