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“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
Verse 1. Sins. During the captivity. verse 11. Saint Thomas.—Some will not hear, and those must be rebuked with all patience, till they follow virtue. Worthington.
Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.
Verse 2. Approach, and contend with God, scrutinizing his conduct, (Proverbs 25:27) and doing good for the sake of applause and self-interest.
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers.
Verse 3. Will. This alone suggested their fasts, and they did not shew compassion. Ezekiel 7:2. Calmet.—Debtors, who are not able to pay. Saint Jerome Deuteronomy 24:12.
Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
Verse 4. Strife. The usual works were interrupted. The Church formerly forbade law-suits on fast-days.—Fist. Matthew 18:28.—Wickedly. Septuagint “the humble.”
Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Verse 5. Circle. They affected extreme debility. Matthew 6:16. Calmet.—Ashes. These external marks of penance are not condemned, but the want of corresponding sentiments. Bible.—Prot. would hence infer that fasting from flesh is not requisite, or a religious worship. But S. Jerom shews the contrary, provided it be joined with the observance of other commandments, as the saints and Christ himself have shewn us.
“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
Verse 6. Bands. Contracts of usury, and so forth Calmet.
Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Verse 7. Deal. Lit. “break.” Bible.—Thin cakes are still used in the East.—Flesh, or relation. Genesis 27:27.
Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard.
Verse 8. Light. Prosperity, ( Calmet.) or Saviour. Bible.—Matthew 4:2 and John 1:8. Calmet.—Health. Aquila, “the scar of thy wound shall soon be covered.” Saint Jerome—Up. He shall close the rear, like the angel in the cloud. Exodus 13:21 and 14:19. He will grant thee rest from bondage in the grave and in heaven. Calmet.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;
Verse 9. Finger, contemptuously, or threatening. Saint Jerome—Some explain it of the ordaining sacred ministers, or taking another’s property.
and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;
Verse 10. Soul, effectually, and with love relieving the distressed. Calmet.
and the LORD will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail.
Verse 11. Fail. Septuagint Alex. adds, “and thy bones as a flower shall spring and grow fat, and shall inherit ages of ages.” S. Jerom says this is not in the best copies. Bible.
Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.
Verse 12. Generation. As the Jews did not comply with the condition, the Church falls heir to these promises.
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the LORD honorable, and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,
Verse 13. Sabbath, doing no work, or refraining from the violation of festivals.—Delightful. We must not think the sabbath of the Lord a loss: (Amos 8:5) but rejoice in praising him. Psalms 45:11. Calmet.—A word, or to apply to God’s word. Grot.—Pious reading on holidays is the duty of all who have an opportunity. Bible.
then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for the LORD’s mouth has spoken it.
Verse 14. Earth. Judea. Calmet.—Septuagint “upon the good things of the land.” Bible.