Behold, &c.— "You gratify your passions, especially your covetousness: you oppress the poor, and therefore are defective in the duties of justice and charity." By labours are meant those riches which are gotten by the toil and fatigue of ourselves or others; and by exacting our labours, in the style of the Mosaic law, is meant, the rigorous insisting upon payment, where the debtor is unable to make it. The next verse fully explains this clause; and no reader can fail to admire the subsequent part of this chapter, wherein the prophet sets forth, in the fullest manner possible, the vanity of all external and formal professions in religion, unaccompanied by genuine holiness, virtue, and undissembled love and charity.
Related Commentaries of Isaiah 58:3
Isaiah 58:3
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