Isaiah 58:4

Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. YE SHALL NOT FAST AS (YE DO THIS) DAY, TO MAKE YOUR VOICE TO BE HEARD ON HIGH - or, 'ye do not fast at this time so as to make your voice to be heard on high,' i:e., in heaven; your aim in fasting is strife, not to gain the ear of God (Maurer), as in the case of the Jezreelites' fast and murder of Naboth (; ). The English version is confirmed by the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldaic, Arabic, and Syriac: the sense is. If you wish acceptance with God, ye must not fast as ye now do to make your voice heard high in strife....

4._Behold, for strife and contention ye fast. _This verse ought to be connected with the end of the preceding verse; for, having in the former clause introduced hypocrites as complaining of the violence and harshness of the prophets, he assigns, in the latter clause, the reason why the Lord loathes their fasts and their other performances. It is because they do not proceed from pure affection of heart. What the inclination of their heart is, he shows from its fruits; for he sends them back to the duties of the second table, from which it is easily seen what we are. Purity of heart is manifested by our living innocently, and abstaining from all deceit and injustice. These are the marks of pure affection, in the absence of which the Lord rejects, and even abhors, all external worship. Wherever, on the other hand, cheating, and plunder, and extortion prevail, it is very certain that there i...

3-12 A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it does not express true sorrow for sin, and does not promote the putting away of sin, it is not a fast. These professors had shown sorrow on stated or occasioned fasts. But they indulged pride, covetousness, and malignant passions. To be liberal and merciful is more acceptable to God than mere fasting, which, without them, is vain and hypocritical. Many who seem humble in God's house, are hard at home, and harass their families. But no man's faith justifies, which does not work by love. Yet persons, families, neighbourhoods, churches, or nations, show repentance and sorrow for sin, by keeping a fast sincerely, and, from right motives, repenting, and doing good works. The heavy yoke of sin and oppression must be removed. As sin and sorrow dry the bones and weaken the strongest human constitution; so the duties of kindness and charity strength...

Verse Isaiah 58:4. _YE FAST FOR STRIFE AND DEBATE_] How often is this the case! A whole nation are called to fast to implore God's blessing on wars carried on for the purposes of wrath and ambition. _TO SMITE WITH THE FIST OF WICKEDNESS: YE SHALL NOT FAST AS_ YE DO THIS _DAY__ _- "To smite with the fist the poor. Wherefore fast ye unto me in this manner"] I follow the version of the _Septuagint_, which gives a much better sense than the present reading of the Hebrew. Instead of רשע לא _resha lo_, they seem to have read in their copy רש על מה לי _rash al mah lli_. The four first letters are the same, but otherwise divided in regard to the words; the four last are lost, and א _aleph_ added in their place, in order to make some sort of sense with רשע ל. The version of the _Septuagint_ is, και τυπτετε τυγμαις ταπει

BEHOLD, YE FAST FOR STRIFE AND DEBATE - This is a third characteristic of their manner of fasting, and a third reason why God did not regard and accept it. They were divided into parties and factions, and probably made their fastings an occasion of augmented contention and strife. How often has this been seen! Contending denominations of Christians fast, not laying aside their strifes; contending factions in the church fast in order to strengthen their party with the solemn sanctions of religion. One of the most certain ways for bigots to excite persecution against those who are opposed to them is to ‘proclaim a fast;’ and when together, their passions are easily inflamed, their flagging zeal excited by inflammatory harangues, and their purpose formed to regard and treat their dissentient brethren as incorrigible heretics and irreconcilable foes. It may be added, also, that it is possibl...

SECTION VI. PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS AND WARNINGS, FOLLOWED BY A CONFESSION AND A PROMISE (Isaiah 58:1; Isaiah 59:1.). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 58:1 FORMALISM REBUKED AND INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN WITH RESPECT TO FASTING. As in the last section, so here, the prophet's eye seems to rest upon his contemporaries rather than upon the exiles; and to note the vices o

BEHOLD, YE FAST FOR STRIFE AND DEBATE,.... Brawling with their servants for not doing work enough; or quarrelling with their debtors for not paying their debts; or the main of their religion lay in contentions and strifes about words, vain hot disputations about rites and ceremonies in worship, as is well known to have been the case of the reformed churches: AND TO SMITE WITH THE FIST OF WICKEDNESS; their servants or their debtors; or rather it may design the persecution of such whose consciences would not suffer them to receive the doctrines professed; or submit to ordinances as administered; or comply with rites and ceremonies enjoined by the said churches; for which they have smitten their brethren that dissented from them with the fist, or have persecuted them in a violent manner by imprisonment, confiscation of goods, c. all which is no other than a fist of wickedness, and highly d...

Isaiah 58:1. _Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God._ And what a strange thing this is, that there are some people who take delight in the ordinances of God, and yet they are living in the most shameful sin. I must confess this remains a mystery to me. But I hear of some who will attend prayer-meetings and seem to enjoy them who are to be found in the House of God whenever the doors are opened, and yet their characters will not bear the light. One would think that they would not wish to be told of their sins, and to come under a faithful ministry, and yet they do, and the more fai

3. JEWISH HISTORY IN THE END TIME: THEIR FUTURE GLORY AND THE GLORY OF THE COMING AGE (58-59) This third and last section of the vision of Isaiah can only be understood and appreciated if it is studied in the light of other prophecies which predict the final events with which the times of the Gentiles close. That period consists of 7 years, the last 3 1/2 being the great tribulation. According to these predictions a part of the Jewish nation will be back in their land. These returned Jews will consist of two classes, a faithful remnant who own their condition, trust in Jehovah and in the national promises, and an unbelieving mass. The latter will be the large majority and hate their own brethren. In their unbelief they will build another temple and eventually will accept the false messiah, the Antichrist. The struggles and troubles of the end time can easily be traced in this last sectio...

FASTING, FALSE AND TRUE. Yahweh bids the prophet explain to His people wherein their sin lies. Daily they attend the Temple, seeking to know His will for all the world as though their one aim were to do it! They question the priests as to correct ritualrighteous ordinances and delight in daily worship. Why, they ask, when we fast does Yahweh take no notice of our pleas? Because on their fast-days they pursue their business so render rather than pleasure and exact their debts (so emend (_cf._ LXX) the dubious word rendered labours). Thus their fast-days are marked by strife and oppression. Such fasting will not speed their prayers on high! Yahweh desires as a fast not self-mortification, gestures of woe, _symbols_ of humiliation: but the loosing of unjust bonds, and the freeing of the crushed; the feeding of the hungry (_cf._ Nehemiah 5:17) and the housing of the homeless; the