Isaiah 58
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 700 BC – 500 BC · Exile in Babylon · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
14 verses · 488 words · ~2 min read · ~3 min listen
True Fasts and Sabbaths
1“Cry aloud, do not hold back!
Raise your voice like a ramʼs horn.
Declare to My people their transgression
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2For day after day they seek Me
and delight to know My ways,
like a nation that does what is right
and does not forsake the justice of their God.
They ask Me for righteous judgments;
they delight in the nearness of God.”
3“Why have we fasted,
and You have not seen?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and You have not noticed?”
“Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please,
and you oppress all your workers.
4You fast with contention and strife
to strike viciously with your fist.
You cannot fast as you do today
and have your voice be heard on high.
5Is this the fast I have chosen:
a day for a man to deny himself,
to bow his head like a reed,
and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast
and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6Isnʼt this the fast that I have chosen:
to break the chains of wickedness,
to untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and tear off every yoke?
7Isnʼt it to share your bread with the hungry,
to bring the poor and homeless into your home,
to clothe the naked when you see him,
and not to turn away
from your own flesh and blood?
8Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will come quickly.
Your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,
10and if you give yourself to the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted soul,
then your light will go forth in the darkness,
and your night will be like noonday.
11The Lord will always guide you;
He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land
and strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins;
you will restore the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of the Breach,
Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.
13If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath,
from doing as you please on My holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight,
and the Lordʼs holy day honorable,
if you honor it by not going your own way
or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,
14then you will delight yourself in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the land
and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Study notes on this chapter · 1
Prophecy & fulfillmentDebated
Rivers of living water
At the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus cries out that whoever believes in him will have rivers of living water flowing from within, 'as Scripture has said'. No verse says exactly this, and John explains it as the Spirit to be given after Jesus was glorified. Which passage he has in mind is disputed, as is whose heart the water flows from.
When: Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles, c. AD 29; the Feast itself recalled water from the rock and looked to the Lord's day in Zechariah 14.
Echoed inJohn 7:37–39
Ways people read this (4)
- Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Zechariah 14:8: the river flowing from the temple.
- Isaiah 55:1 and 58:11: the thirsty invited to water, and a well-watered garden.
- Water from the rock in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6; Psalm 78:16), which Paul also links to Christ.
- The punctuation and grammar can be read so the water flows from Jesus himself or from the believer; manuscripts and translations differ.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.