1  “Cry aloud; do not hold back;

lift up your voice like a trumpet;

^ldeclare to my people their transgression,

to the house of Jacob their sins.

2  ^mYet they seek me daily

and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that did righteousness

and did not forsake the judgment of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments;

they delight to draw near to God.

3  ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,¹

and oppress all your workers.

4  Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to hit with a wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day

will not make your voice to be heard on high.

5  Is such the fast that I choose,

a day for a person to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a reed,

and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast,

and a day acceptable to the Lord?

6  “Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

ⁿto let the oppressed² go free,

and to break every yoke?

7  Is it not to ^oshare your bread with the hungry

and ^pbring the homeless poor into your house;

^qwhen you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

8  ^rThen shall your light break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you;

^sthe glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

9  Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst,

the ^tpointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

10  if you pour yourself out for the hungry

and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noonday.

11  And the Lord will guide you continually

and satisfy your desire in scorched places

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be ^ulike a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters do not fail.

12  And your ^vancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to dwell in.

13  “If you turn back your foot from the ^wSabbath,

from doing your pleasure³ on my holy day,

and call the Sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

if you honor it, not going your own ways,

or seeking your own pleasure,⁴ or talking idly;⁵

14  then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will ^xmake you ride on the heights of the earth;⁶

I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,

^yfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

1  Behold, ^zthe Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,

or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;

2  but ^ayour iniquities have made a separation

between you and your God,

and your sins have ^bhidden his face from you

so that he does not hear.

3  For your ^chands are defiled with blood

and your fingers with iniquity;

your lips have spoken lies;

your tongue mutters wickedness.

4  No one enters suit justly;

no one goes to law honestly;

they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,

they ^dconceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

5  They hatch adders’ eggs;

they weave the spider’s web;

he who eats their eggs dies,

and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.

6  Their webs will not serve as clothing;

men will not cover themselves with what they make.

Their works are works of iniquity,

and deeds of violence are in their hands.

7  ^eTheir feet run to evil,

and they are swift to shed innocent blood;

their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

desolation and destruction are in their highways.

8  The ^fway of peace they do not know,

and there is no justice in their paths;

they have made their roads crooked;

no one who treads on them knows peace.

9  Therefore justice is far from us,

and righteousness does not overtake us;

we hope for light, and ^gbehold, darkness,

and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

10  We ^hgrope for the wall like the blind;

we grope like those who have no eyes;

we stumble at noon as in the twilight,

among those in full vigor we are like dead men.

11  We all growl like bears;

we moan and moan ⁱlike doves;

we hope for justice, but there is none;

for salvation, but it is far from us.

12  For our transgressions are multiplied before you,

and our sins ^jtestify against us;

for our transgressions are with us,

and we know our iniquities:

13  transgressing, and denying the Lord,

and turning back from following our God,

speaking oppression and revolt,

conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

14  Justice is turned back,

and righteousness stands far away;

for truth has stumbled in the public squares,

and uprightness cannot enter.

15  Truth is lacking,

and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him⁷

that there was no justice.

16  He saw that ^kthere was no man,

and wondered that there was no one to intercede;

then ^lhis own arm brought him salvation,

and his righteousness upheld him.

17  He put on righteousness as a ^mbreastplate,

and a ⁿhelmet of salvation on his head;

he put on garments of ^ovengeance for clothing,

and wrapped himself in ^pzeal as a cloak.

18  According to their deeds, so will he repay,

wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;

to the coastlands he will render repayment.

19  So they shall ^qfear the name of the Lord ^rfrom the west,

and his glory from the rising of the sun;

for he will come like a rushing stream,⁸

which the wind of the Lord drives.

20  “And ^sa Redeemer will come to Zion,

to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.