Isaiah 58:4

ye fast for strife and contention (R.V.)] The fasting made them as irritable as Arabs in the month of Ramadan; it produced a quarrelsome temper which even led to open violence, "smiting with godless fist."

ye shall not fast &c.] Render: ye do not fast at present so as to make &c., i.e. "with your present mode of fasting, your prayers can never reach the ear of Jehovah."

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:

Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

Hamlet, Act iii. Scene iii. 97 f.