Isaiah 58:13 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

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:

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, (from) doing thy pleasure on my holy day - (Isaiah 56:2; Nehemiah 13:15-22.) The Sabbath, even under the new dispensation, is designed to be obligatory (Isaiah 66:23).

Foot - the instrument of motion (cf. Proverbs 4:27); men are not to travel for mere pleasure on the Sabbath (Acts 1:12). The Israelites were forbidden to travel on it further than the tabernacle or temple. If thou keep thy foot from going on thy own ways and "doing thy pleasure," etc. (Exodus 20:10-11.)

My holy day. God claims it as His day; to take it for our pleasure is to rob Him of His own. This is the very way in which the Sabbath is mostly broken; it is made a day of carnal pleasure instead of spiritual "delight."

And call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable - not the predicate, but the subject: 'if thou call the holy (day) of Yahweh honourable;' if thou treat it as a day to be honoured.

And shalt honour him - or else, it, the Sabbath.

Not doing thine own ways - answering to "turn away thy foot from the Sabbath."

Nor finding thine own pleasure - answering to "doing thy pleasure." 'To keep the Sabbath in an idle manner is the Sabbath of oxen and donkeys; to pass it in a jovial manner is the Sabbath of the golden calf, when the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose again to play; to keep it in surfeiting and wantonness is the Sabbath of Satan, the devil's holiday' (Dr. Andrewes).

Nor speaking (thine own) words - answering to, "call the Sabbath a delight ... honourable." Man's "own words" would "call" it a 'weariness;' it is the spiritual nature given from above which "calls it a delight" (Amos 8:5; Malachi 1:13).

Isaiah 58:13

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: