Isaiah 58:3
Good News Translation
The people ask, "Why should we fast if the LORD never notices? Why should we go without food if he pays no attention?" The LORD says to them, "The truth is that at the same time you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers.

New Revised Standard Version
“Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.

Contemporary English Version
You wonder why the LORD pays no attention when you go without eating and act humble. But on those same days that you give up eating, you think only of yourselves and abuse your workers.

New American Bible
“Why do we fast, but you do not see it? afflict ourselves, but you take no note?” See, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.

have we fasted

Numbers 23:4 And when he was gone with speed, God met him. And Balaam speaking to him, said: I have erected seven altars, and have laid on everyone a calf and a ram.

Micah 3:9-11 But yet I am filled with the strength of the spirit of the Lord, with judgment and power: to declare unto Jacob his wickedness and to Israel his sin. . . .

Zechariah 7:5-7 Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: When you fasted, and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years: did you keep a fast unto me? . . .

Malachi 3:14 And you have said: What have we spoken against thee? You have said: He laboureth in vain that serveth God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts?

Matthew 20:11,12 And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, . . .

Luke 15:29 And he answering, said to his father: Behold, for so many years do I serve thee and I have never transgressed thy commandment: and yet thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends.

Luke 18:9-12 And to some who trusted in themselves as just and despised others, he spoke also this parable: . . .

afflicted

Leviticus 16:29,31 And this shall be to you an everlasting ordinance. The seventh month, the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no work, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you. . . .

Leviticus 23:27 Upon the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonement. It shall be most solemn, and shall be called holy: and you shall await your souls on that day, and shall offer a holocaust to the Lord.

Psalm 69:10 And I covered my soul in fasting: and it was made a reproach to me.

in

Daniel 10:2,3 In those days I, Daniel, mourned the days of three weeks. . . .

Jonah 3:6-8 And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. . . .

exact

Nehemiah 5:7 And my heart thought with myself: and I rebuked the nobles and magistrates, and said to them: Do you every one exact usury of your brethren? And I gathered together a great assembly against them,

Proverbs 28:9 He that turneth away his ears from hearing the law, his prayer shall be an abomination.

Jeremiah 34:9-17 That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go free: and that they should not lord it over them, to wit, over the Jews their brethren. . . .

Matthew 18:28-35 But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow-servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, he throttled him, saying: Pay what thou owest. . . .

labours.

Isaiah 47:6 I was angry with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and have given them into thy hand: thou hast shewn no mercy to them: upon the ancient thou hast laid thy yoke exceeding heavy.

Exodus 2:23,24 Now after a long time the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel groaning, cried out because of the works: and their cry went up unto God from the works. . . .

Context
True Fasts and Sabbaths
2For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God. 3Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.4Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.…
Cross References
Luke 18:12
I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess.

Leviticus 16:31
For it is a sabbath of rest: and you shall afflict your souls by a perpetual religion.

Ezra 8:21
And I proclaimed there a fast by the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before the Lord our God, and might ask of him a right way for us and for our children, and for all our substance.

Isaiah 22:12
And the Lord, the God of hosts, in that day shall call to weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

Isaiah 22:13
And behold joy and gladness, killing calves, and slaying rams, eating flesh, and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.

Zechariah 7:5
Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: When you fasted, and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years: did you keep a fast unto me?

Zechariah 7:6
And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

Malachi 3:14
And you have said: What have we spoken against thee? You have said: He laboureth in vain that serveth God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts?

Isaiah 58:2
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