A Call to Repentance
Isaiah 58:1 – 59:15
Isaiah 58:1 – 59:15
CHAPTER 58
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that doeth righteousness, and hath not forsaken the ordinance of their God; they ask of me the ordinances of righteousness, they take delight in approaching to God: 3 — Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not; have afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find what pleaseth you, and exact all your labours. 4 Behold, ye have fasted for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye do not at present fast, to cause your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul, — that he should bow down his head as a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to Jehovah? 6 Is not this the fast which I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, and to send forth free the crushed, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring to thy house the needy wanderers; 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 dawn, and thy health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearguard. 9 Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger and the unjust speech, 10 and thou proffer thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in the darkness, and thine obscurity be as midday; 11 and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and strengthen thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a water-spring, whose waters deceive not. 12 And they that come of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations that have remained from generation to generation; and thou shalt be called, Repairer of the breaches, restorer of frequented paths. 13 If thou turn back thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of Jehovah, honourable; and thou honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking idle words; 14 then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah, and I will cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken.
1 Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he doth not hear. 3 For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips speak lies, your tongue muttereth unrighteousness: 4 none calleth for justice, none pleadeth in truthfulness. They trust in vanity, and speak falsehood; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. 5 They hatch serpents’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. 6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. 7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths; 8 the way of peace they know not, and there is no judgment in their goings; they have made their paths crooked: whoso goeth therein knoweth not peace. 9 Therefore is justice far from us, and righteousness overtaketh us not: we wait for light, and behold darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at midday as in the twilight; amongst the flourishing we are as the dead. 11 We roar all like bears, and mourn grievously like doves: we look for judgment, and there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us; and our iniquities, we know them: 13 in transgressing and lying against Jehovah, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 And judgment is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth stumbleth in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. 15 And truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And Jehovah saw it, and it was evil in his sight that there was no judgment.