Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? They complain of hard usage from God, that although they prayed, and fasted, and kept the rest of God's ordinances, all which are synecdochically comprehended under the title of fasting, all their labour was lost, and God neither regarded nor delivered them. Afflicted our soul; defrauded and pinched our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Leviticus 16:29, Leviticus 23:27,29. In the day of your fast; in those solemn days of fasting which I have appointed; or, in those times when I have called you by the course of my providence, and counsels of my prophets, unto fasting, and weeping, and mourning, &c., Isaiah 22:12. Ye find pleasure; either,
1. You indulge yourselves in sensuality, as they did, Isaiah 22:13. But this doth not agree with that afflicting of their souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledgeth, Isaiah 58:5. Or rather,
2. You pursue and satisfy your own lusts; though you abstain from bodily food, you do not mortify your own sinful concupiscences; and when you are restrained from outwards acts, yet even then your thoughts and affections are set upon and working toward those things which gratify your fleshly inclinations and worldly interests. Your labours; your money got by your labour, and lent to others, either for their need, or your own advantage; for labour is oft put for wealth, as Deuteronomy 28:33 Isaiah 45:14, &c. Heb. your griefs; not passively, those things which are grievous to you; but actively, such as are very grievous and burdensome to others; either hard service, above the strength of your servants, or beyond the time limited by God for their service, of which see an instance, Jeremiah 34:13-16; or debts, which you require either with usury, or at least with rigour and cruelty, when either the general law of charity, or God's particular and positive law, commanded the release, or at least the forbearance, of them; of which see an instance, Nehemiah 5:1,2, &c.