3‘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.
4Behold, 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.
5Is 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 Yahweh?
6“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?
7Isn’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?
3 ‘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.
4 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.
5 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 Yahweh?
6 “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?
7 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?
KJVKing James Version
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
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.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
3 'Wherefore have we fasted, and Thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge?' — Behold, in the day of your fast ye pursue your business, and exact all your labours.
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Nehemiah 5:10-12(v6)I likewise, my brothers and my servants, lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury. Please restore to them, even today,…
Matthew 25:35-45(v7)for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and…
Isaiah 58:9(v6)Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke,…
Ezekiel 18:7(v7)and has not wronged any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and…
Luke 3:11(v7)He answered them, “He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise.”
Show all 88 cross-references
Proverbs 28:27(v7)One who gives to the poor has no lack; but one who closes his eyes will have many curses.
1 John 3:17-18(v7)But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain…
Proverbs 25:21(v7)If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
Isaiah 58:10(v7)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…
Romans 12:20-21(v7)Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his…
Proverbs 22:9(v7)He who has a generous eye will be blessed; for he shares his food with the poor.
Ezekiel 18:16(v7)hasn’t wronged any, hasn’t taken anything to pledge, hasn’t taken by robbery, but has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the…
Hebrews 13:2-3(v7)Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in…
James 2:15-16(v7)And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you…
Jeremiah 34:8-11(v6)The word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim…
1 Timothy 6:1(v6)Let as many as are bondservants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine not be…
Isaiah 16:3-4(v7)Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!…
Daniel 9:3-19(v5)I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made…
2 Corinthians 9:6-10(v7)Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Let each man give…
Luke 11:41(v7)But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.
Zechariah 7:5(v5)“Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for…
Luke 18:9-12(v3)He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others. “Two men went up…
Isaiah 49:8(v5)Yahweh says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time. I have helped you in a day of salvation. I will preserve you and give you for a…
Esther 4:16(v5)“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my…
Psalms 112:9(v7)He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.
Isaiah 61:2(v5)to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
Malachi 3:14(v3)You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God;’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions, and that we have walked mournfully…
Romans 12:2(v5)Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing,…
Leviticus 16:29(vv3, 5)“It shall be a statute to you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no…
1 Kings 21:9-13(v4)She wrote in the letters, saying, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. Set two men, wicked fellows, before him, and…
2 Chronicles 20:3(v5)Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
Job 31:18-21(v7)(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); if I have seen any perish for want of…
Psalms 69:13(v5)But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of…
Proverbs 28:9(v3)He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
Daniel 4:27(v7)Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to…
Luke 4:19(v5)and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Acts 16:34(v7)He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.
1 Timothy 5:10(v7)being approved by good works, if she has brought up children, if she has been hospitable to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet,…
1 Kings 21:27-29(v5)When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.…
Ezra 10:6(v5)Then Ezra rose up from before God’s house, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. When he came there, he ate no bread,…
Nehemiah 5:7(v3)Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, “You exact usury, everyone of his brother.” I…
Nehemiah 9:1-2(v5)Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, with sackcloth, and dirt on them. The…
Esther 4:3(v5)In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping,…
Job 2:8(v5)He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
Job 22:7(v7)You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
Proverbs 21:27(v4)The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination— how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!
Isaiah 58:3(v5)‘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…
Isaiah 59:2(v4)But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Jonah 3:6-8(v3)The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in…
Micah 3:2-4(v6)You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my…
Matthew 6:16-18(v4)“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be…
Matthew 20:11-12(v3)When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household, saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them…
Romans 12:13(v7)contributing to the needs of the saints; given to hospitality.
Philemon 1:7(v7)For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
1 Peter 2:5(v5)You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God…
Genesis 18:2-5(v7)He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood near him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and…
Genesis 19:2(v7)and he said, “See now, my lords, please come into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go…
Exodus 2:23-24(v3)In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and…
Leviticus 16:31(v3)It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.
Leviticus 23:27(v3)“However on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall afflict…
Numbers 23:4(v3)God met Balaam, and he said to him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.”
Judges 19:20-21(v7)The old man said, “Peace be to you! Just let me supply all your needs, but don’t sleep in the street.” So he brought him into his house,…
2 Chronicles 28:15(v7)The men who have been mentioned by name rose up and took the captives, and with the plunder clothed all who were naked among them, dressed…
Nehemiah 5:5(v7)Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage…
Psalms 69:10(v3)When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.
Isaiah 22:13(v3)and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will…
Isaiah 47:6(v3)I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. You laid a very heavy yoke on…
Isaiah 59:6(v4)Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are…
Jeremiah 34:9-17(v3)that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that no one should…
Daniel 10:2-3(v3)In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three whole weeks. I ate no pleasant bread. No meat or wine came into my mouth. I didn’t anoint…
Joel 2:13-14(v4)Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in…
Jonah 3:5-8(v5)The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. The news…
Jonah 3:7(v4)He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd…
Micah 3:9-11(v3)Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity. They…
Zechariah 7:5-7(v3)“Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for…
Matthew 18:28-35(v3)“But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him, and took him by the…
Matthew 23:13(v4)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will…
Luke 15:29(v3)But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave…
Luke 19:8(v7)Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone,…
Luke 20:47(v4)who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these will receive greater condemnation.”
John 18:28(v4)They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves didn’t enter into the Praetorium, that they…
Acts 23:1-2(v4)Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until today.” The high priest,…
Philippians 1:14-15(v4)and that most of the brothers in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without…
Genesis 19:14(v7)Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh…
2 Kings 6:30(v5)When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he…
Ecclesiastes 11:1-2(v7)Cast your bread on the waters; for you shall find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, yes, even to eight; for you don’t know what…
Luke 10:26-36(v7)He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with…
Acts 16:15(v7)When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and…
88 distinct cross-references across this passage (89 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv3, 4, 6, 7He setteth forth the malice and disdain of the…
He setteth forth the malice and disdain of the hypocrites, which grudge against God, if their works be not accepted.
Thus he convinceth the hypocrites by the second table, and by their duty toward their neighbor, that they have neither faith nor religion.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv3–7Isa 58:3 Wherefore have we fasted, [say they], and…
Isa 58:3 Wherefore have we fasted, [say they], and thou seest not? [wherefore] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
Ver. 3. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?] Here they begin to bluster, and their hypocrisy to blister out at their lips. {a} God, they held, was not a little beholden to them, and now also in arrears with them. For as that heathen emperor {b} said once of his gods, Non sic deos coluimus, ut iste nos vinceret, We have not served our gods, that they should serve us no better than to allow our enemies to get the better of us; so were these proud pretenders ready to say of God Almighty, We have better deserved than to be so served; rated by these prophets, and evil entreated by our enemies; beaten on both sides. A rich chapman, that hath had a good stock and trading, is loath to be a journeyman again; he will be trading, though it be but for pins; so we, bankrupt in Adam, yet will be doing, and think to be saved for a company of poor beggarly duties, dead prayers, formal fastings, &c., and to set off with God by our good deeds for our bad, as the Papists do, and not a few ignorants among us.
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Behold, in the day of your fast.] Which is called a day of restraint, because therein you should amerce yourselves and abridge yourselves of all sorts of delights.
Ye find pleasure.] Ye find your own desire, pleasure, or will; {c} ye gratify your flesh, pursue your sinful lusts and purposes. Grande malum propria voluntas, saith Bernard, qua fit ut bona tua tibi bona non sint. A man’s own will or pleasure proves a great evil to him many times, making his good duties (fastings, prayers, and the like) no way good to him. In vain is the body macerated, if men’s lusts be not mortified.
And exact all your labours,] i.e., Your debts and dues with rigour and extremity, not considering that utmost right is utmost wrong; and that, howsoever, you should take another time for such work. Feriis iurgia amovento, brawl not on a holiday, was one of the laws of the Twelve Tables in Rome.
{a} Ecce non diu occultant se hypocrisis et superbia. - Oecol.
{b} Antonin., Philos. Referente.
{c} Chephets significat id quod libet.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv3–7Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest…
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? They complain of hard usage from God, that although they prayed, and fasted, and kept the rest of God’s ordinances, all which are synecdochically comprehended under the title of fasting, all their labour was lost, and God neither regarded nor delivered them.
Afflicted our soul; defrauded and pinched our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Lev 16:29; 23:27,29.
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In the day of your fast; in those solemn days of fasting which I have appointed; or, in those times when I have called you by the course of my providence, and counsels of my prophets, unto fasting, and weeping, and mourning, &c., Isa 22:12. Ye find pleasure; either,
1. You indulge yourselves in sensuality, as they did, Isa 22:13. But this doth not agree with that afflicting of their souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledgeth, Isa 58:5. Or rather,
2. You pursue and satisfy your own lusts; though you abstain from bodily food, you do not mortify your own sinful concupiscences; and when you are restrained from outwards acts, yet even then your thoughts and affections are set upon and working toward those things which gratify your fleshly inclinations and worldly interests.
Your labours; your money got by your labour, and lent to others, either for their need, or your own advantage; for labour is oft put for wealth, as Deu 28:33; Isa 45:14, &c. Heb. your griefs; not passively, those things which are grievous to you; but actively, such as are very grievous and burdensome to others; either hard service, above the strength of your servants, or beyond the time limited by God for their service, of which see an instance, Jer 34:13-16; or debts, which you require either with usury, or at least with rigour and cruelty, when either the general law of charity, or God’s particular and positive law, commanded the release, or at least the forbearance, of them; of which see an instance, Neh 5:1,2, &c.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v3Here we have, I. The displeasure which these hypocrites…
Here we have, I. The displeasure which these hypocrites conceived against God for not accepting the services which they themselves had a mighty opinion of (Isa 58:3): Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Thus they went in the way of Cain, who was angry at God, and resented it as a gross affront that his offering was not accepted. Having gone about to put a cheat upon God by their external services, here they go about to pick a quarrel with God for not being pleased with their services, as if he had not done fairly or justly by them. Observe, 1. How they boast of themselves, and magnify their own performances: "We have fasted, and afflicted our souls; we have not only sought God daily (Isa 58:2), but have kept some certain times of more solemn devotion." Some think this refers to the yearly fast (which was called the day of atonement), others to their arbitrary occasional fasts. Note, It is common for unhumbled hearts to be proud of their professions of humiliation, as the Pharisee (Luk 18:12), I fast twice in the week. 2. What they expected from their performances. They thought God should take great notice of them, and own himself a debtor to them for their services. Note, It is a common thing for hypocrites, while they perform the external services of religion, to promise themselves that acceptance with God which he has promised only to the sincere; as if they must be accepted of course, or for a compliment. 3. How heinously they take it that God had not put some particular marks of his favour upon them, that he had not immediately delivered them out of their troubles and advanced them to honour and prosperity. They charge God with injustice and partiality, and seem resolved to throw up their religion, and justify themselves in doing so with this, that they had found no profit in praying to God, Job 21:14, Job 21:15; Mal 3:14. Note, Reigning hypocrisy often breaks out in daring impiety and an open contempt and reproach of God and religion for that which the hypocrisy itself must bear all the blame of. Sinners reflect upon religion as a hard and melancholy service, and on which there is nothing to be got by, when really it is owing to themselves that it seems so to them, because they are not sincere in it.
II. The true reason assigned why God did not accept their fastings, nor answer the prayers they made on their fast-days; it was because they did not fast aright - to God, even to him, Zac 7:5. They fasted indeed, but they persisted in their sins, and did not, as the Ninevites, turn every one from his evil way; but in the day of their fast, notwithstanding the professed humiliations and covenants of that day, they went on to find pleasure, that is, to do whatsoever seemed right in their own eyes, lawful or unlawful, quicquid libet, licet - making their inclinations their law; though they seemed to afflict their souls, they still gratified their lusts as much as ever. 1. They were as covetous and unmerciful as ever: "You exact all your labours from your servants, and will neither release them according to the law nor relax the rigour of their servitude." This was their fault before the captivity, Jer 34:8, Jer 34:9. It was no less their fault after their captivity, notwithstanding all their solemn fasts, Neh 5:5. "You exact all your dues, your debts" (so some read it); "you are as rigorous and severe in extorting what you demand from those that are poor as ever you were, though it was at the close of the yearly fast that the release was proclaimed." 2. They were contentious and spiteful (Isa 58:4): Behold, you fast for strife and debate. When they proclaimed a fast to deprecate God's judgments, they pretended to search for those sins which provoked God to threaten them with his judgments, and under that pretence perhaps particular persons were falsely accused, as Naboth in the day of Jezebel's fast, Kg1 21:12. Or the contending parties among them upon those occasions were bitter and severe in their reflections one upon another, one side crying out, "It is owing to you," and the other, "It is owing to you, that our deliverance is not wrought." Thus, instead of judging themselves, which is the proper work of a fast-day, they condemned one another. They fasted for strife, with emulation which should make the most plausible appearance on a fast-day and humour the matter best. Nor was it only tongue-quarrels that were fomented in the times of their fasting, but they came to blows too: You smite with the fist of wickedness. The cruel task-masters beat their servants, and the creditors their insolvent debtors, whom they delivered to the tormentors; they abused poor innocents with wicked hands. Now while they thus continued in sin, in those very sins which were directly contrary to the intention of a fasting day, (1.) God would not allow them the use of such solemnities: "You shall not fast at all if you fast as you do this day, causing your voice to be heard on high, in the heat of your clamours one against another, or in your devotions, which you perform so as to make them to be taken notice of for ostentation. Bring me no more of these empty, noisy, vain oblations," Isa 1:13. Note, Those are justly forbidden the honour of a profession of religion that will not submit to the power of it. (2.) He would not accept of them in the use of them: "You shall not fast, that is, it shall not be looked upon as a fast, nor shall the voice of your prayers on those days be heard on high in heaven." Note, Those that fast and pray, and yet go on in their wicked ways, do but mock God and deceive themselves.
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III. Plain instructions given concerning the true nature of a religious fast.
1. In general, a fast is intended, (1.) For the honouring and pleasing of God. It must be such a performance as he has chosen (Isa 58:5); it must be an acceptable day to the Lord, in the duties of which we must study to approve ourselves to him and obtain his favour, else it is not a fast, else there is nothing done to any purpose. (2.) For the humbling and abasing of ourselves. A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it do not express a genuine sorrow for sin, and do not promote a real mortification of sin, it is not a fast; the law of the day of atonement was that on that day they should afflict their souls, Lev 16:29. That must be done on a fast-day which is a real affliction to the soul, as far as it is yet unregenerate and unsanctified, though a real pleasure and advantage to the soul as far as it is itself.
2. It concerns us therefore to enquire, on a fast-day, what it is that will be acceptable to God, and afflictive to our corrupt nature, and tending to its mortification.
(1.) We are here told negatively what is not the fast that God has chosen, and which does not amount to the afflicting of the soul. [1.] It is not enough to look demure, to put on a grave and melancholy aspect, to bow down the head like a bulrush that is withered and broken: as the hypocrites, that were of a sad countenance, and disfigured their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast, Mat 6:16. Hanging down the head did indeed well enough become the publican, whose heart was truly humbled and broken for sin, and who therefore, in token of that, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven (Luk 18:13); but when it was only mimicked, as here, it was justly ridiculed: it is but hanging down the head like a bulrush, which nobody regards or takes any notice of. As the hypocrite's humiliations are but like the hanging down of a bulrush, so his elevations in his hopes are but like the flourishing of a bulrush (Job 8:11, Job 8:12), which, while it is yet in its greenness, withers before any other herb. [2.] It is not enough to do penance, to mortify the body a little, while the body of sin is untouched. It is not enough for a man to spread sackcloth and ashes under him, which may indeed give him some uneasiness for the present, but will soon be forgotten when he returns to stretch himself upon his beds of ivory, Amo 6:4. Wilt thou call this a fast? No, it is but the shadow and carcase of a fast. Wilt thou call this an acceptable day to the Lord? No, it is so far from being so that the hypocrisy of it is an abomination to him. Note, The shows of religion, though they show ever so fair in the eye of the world, will not be accepted of God without the substance of it.
(2.) We are here told positively what is the fast that God has chosen, what that is which will recommend a fast-day to the divine acceptance, and what is indeed afflicting the soul, that is, crushing and subduing the corrupt nature. It is not afflicting the soul for a day (as some read it, Isa 58:5) that will serve; no, it must be the business of our whole lives. It is here required, [1.] That we be just to those with whom we have dealt hardly. The fast that God has chosen consists in reforming our lives and undoing what we have done amiss (Isa 58:6): To loose the bands of wickedness, the bands which we have wickedly tied, and by which others are bound out from their right or bound down under severe usage. Those which perhaps were at first bands of justice, tying men to pay a due debt, become, when the debt is exacted with rigour from those whom Providence has reduced and emptied, bands of wickedness, and they must be loosed, or they will bring us into bonds of guilt much more terrible. It is to undo the heavy burden laid on the back of the poor servant, under which he is ready to sink. It is to let the oppressed go free from the oppression which makes his life bitter to him. "Let the prisoner for debt that has nothing to pay be discharged, let the vexatious action be quashed, let the servant that is forcibly detained beyond the time of his servitude be released, and thus break every yoke; not only let go those that are wrongfully kept under the yoke, but break the yoke of slavery itself, that it may not serve again another time nor any by made again to serve under it." [2.] That we be charitable to those that stand in need of charity, Isa 58:7. The particulars in the former verse may be taken as acts of charity, that we not only release those whom we have unjustly oppressed - that is justice, but that we contribute to the rescue and ransom of those that are oppressed by others, to the release of captives and the payment of the debts of the poor; but those in this verse are plainly acts of charity. This then is the fast that God has chosen. First, To provide food for those that want it. This is put first, as the most necessary, and which the poor can but a little while live without. It is to break thy bread to the hungry. Observe, "It must be thy bread, that which is honestly got (not that which thou hast robbed others of), the bread which thou thyself hast occasion for, the bread of thy allowance." We must deny ourselves, that we may have to give to him that needeth. "Thy bread which thou hast spared from thyself and thy family, on the fast-day, if that, or the value of it, be not given to the poor, it is the miser's fast, which he makes a hand of; it is fasting for the world, not for God. This is the true fast, to break thy bread to the hungry, not only to give them that which is already broken meat, but to break bread on purpose for them, to give them loaves and not to put them off with scraps." Secondly, To provide lodging for those that want it: It is to take care of the poor that are cast out, that are forced from their dwelling, turned out of house and harbour, are cast out as rebels (so some critics render it), that are attainted, and whom therefore it is highly penal to protect. "If they suffer unjustly, make no difficulty of sheltering them; do not only find out quarters for them and pay for their lodging elsewhere, but, which is a greater act of kindness, bring them to thy own house, make them thy own guests. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for though thou mayest not, as some have done, thereby entertain angels, thou mayest entertain Christ himself, who will recompense it in the resurrection of the just. I was a stranger and you took me in." Thirdly, To provide clothing for those that want it: "When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, both to shelter him from the injuries of the weather and to enable him to appear decently among his neighbours; give him clothes to come to church in, and in these and other instances hide not thyself from thy own flesh." Some understand it more strictly of a man's own kindred and relations: "If those of thy own house and family fall into decay, thou art worse than an infidel if thou dost not provide for them." Ti1 5:8. Others understand it more generally; all that partake of the human nature are to be looked upon as our own flesh, for have we not all one Father? And for this reason we must not hide ourselves from them, not contrive to be out of the way when a poor petitioner enquires for us, not look another way when a moving object of charity and compassion presents itself; let us remember that they are flesh of our flesh and therefore we ought to sympathize with them, and in doing good to them we really do good to our own flesh and spirit too in the issue; for thus we lay up for ourselves a good foundation, a good bond, for the time to come.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv3–7Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest…
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?.... Our fasting; takest no notice of it; expresses no approbation of it, and pleasure in it: this is put for all religious services, being what was frequently performed under the Old Testament, not only at certain times appointed by the Lord, but on other occasions, and of their own fixing; in which they put their confidence, and often boasted of, Luk 18:12, "wherefore have we afflicted our soul", by fasting, "and thou takest no knowledge?" of that, nor of us, and dost not save us from our enemies, and deliver us from our troubles, and bestow favours on us: they had a high opinion of their own performances, and thought that God must have likewise; and were displeased that he showed no more regard unto them:
behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure; this, and what follows in the two next verses, are an answer to their questions, and give reasons why the Lord took no more notice of their fasting, or of their services; because they were not done aright, they found their own pleasure in them; not that they indulged to bodily recreations and carnal delights, but they gratified the inward desires of the flesh, malice, envy, and the like; and they pleased themselves with their own duties, and fancied they procured the favour of God by them:
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and exact all your labours; of their servants, or their money of their debtors; they grieved and afflicted their debtors, by demanding their debts of them, as Jarchi interprets it; and that in a very rigorous manner, requiring whole and immediate payment; or, as it is usual with establishments, they require an exact conformity to their manner of service, worship, and discipline.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv3–7Afflicted - Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which…
Afflicted - Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Levit xvi, 29. Ye find - Either you indulge yourselves in sensuality, as they did, chap. xxii, 13. But this does not agree with that afflicting of their souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledges; or you pursue and satisfy your own desires: though you abstain from bodily food, you do not mortify your sinful inclinations. Exact - Your money, got by your labour, and lent to others, either for their need or your own advantage, which you require either with usury, or at least with rigor, when either the general law of charity, or God's particular law, commanded the release, or at least the forbearance of them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv3, 4, 6, 7Verse 3. Have we adopted our soul - "Have…
Verse 3. Have we adopted our soul - "Have we afflicted our souls"] Twenty-seven MSS. (six ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, thirty-six of De Rossi's, and two of my own, and the old edition of 1488 have the noun in the plural number, נפשינו naphsheynu, our souls; and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulgate. This reading is undoubtedly genuine.
In the day of your fast ye find pleasure] Fast days are generally called holidays, and holidays are days of idleness and pleasure. In numberless cases the fast is turned into a feast.
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And exact all your labours.] Some disregard the most sacred fast, and will oblige their servant to work all day long; others use fast days for the purpose of settling their accounts, posting up their books, and drawing out their bills to be ready to collect their debts. These are sneaking hypocrites; the others are daringly irreligious.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv3, 4, 6, 7Isa 58:3. Wherefore have we fasted, &c. — They…
Isa 58:3. Wherefore have we fasted, &c. — They complain of hard usage from God; that although they prayed, and fasted, and observed the rest of his ordinances, all which are comprehended under the title of fasting, all their labour was lost, and God neither delivered nor regarded them. Wherefore have we afflicted our soul — Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Lev 16:29; Lev 23:27; Lev 23:29. Behold, in the day of your fast — In those solemn days of fasting which I have appointed; or, in those times when I have called you, by the course of my providence, and counsels of my prophets, unto fasting, and weeping, and mourning, Isa 22:12; ye find pleasure, and exact, &c. — Or, as the words may be more significantly rendered, You find wherewithal to please yourselves, and are rigorous in grieving, or burdening, others: that is, You gratify your own passions, especially your covetousness, and you oppress the poor, and so are defective in the duties of justice and charity. By labours may be meant money gotten by labour, and lent to others, either for their need or the lender’s advantage. For labour is often put for the fruit of labour, as Deu 28:33; Isa 45:14. But the Hebrew here, עצביכם, is literally, your griefs, namely, the things which cause griefs, which are grievous and burdensome to others, as either, 1st, Hard service required of servants above their strength, or beyond the time limited by God for their service, of which see Jer 34:13-16: or, 2d, Debts, which they required, either with usury or with rigour and cruelty, when the general law of charity, or God’s particular law, enjoined the release, or, at least, the forbearance of them. See Neh 5:1-2.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv3–7Wherefore have we fasted - They had fasted much,…
Wherefore have we fasted - They had fasted much, evidently with the expectation of delivering themselves from impending calamities, and securing the divine favor. They are here introduced as saying that they had been disappointed. God had not interposed as they had expected. Chagrined and mortified, they now complain that he had not noticed their very conscientious and faithful regard for the duties of religion.
And thou seest not? - All had been in vain. Calamities still impended; judgments threatened; and there were no tokens of the divine approbation. Hypocrites depend on their fastings and prayers as laying God under obligation to save them. If he does not interpose, they complain and murmur. When fasting is the result of a humble and broken heart, it is acceptable; when it is instituted as a means of purchasing the divine favor, and as laying God under obligation, it can be followed by no happy result to the soul.
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Have we afflicted our soul - By fasting. Twenty-one manuscripts (six ancient), says Lowth, have this in the plural number - ‘our souls’ and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and the Vulgate. The sense is not materially affected, however. It is evident here that they regarded their numerous fastings as laying the foundation of a claim on the favor of God, and that they were disposed to complain when that claim was not acknowledged. Fasting, like other religious duties, is proper; but in that, as in all other services of religion, there is danger of supposing that we bring God under obligations, and that we are laying the foundation of a claim to his favor.
Thou takest no knowledge - Thou dost not regard our numerous acts of self-denial.
Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure - The prophet here proceeds to state the reasons why their fastings were not succeeded as they supposed they would be, by the divine favor. The first reason which he states is, that even when they were fasting, they were giving full indulgence to their depraved appetites and lusts. The Syriac has well rendered this, ‘In the day of your fasting you indulge your lusts, and draw near to all your idols.’ This also was evidently the case with the Jews in the time of the Saviour. They were Characterized repeatedly by him as ‘an evil and adulterous generation,’ and yet no generation perhaps was ever more punctual and strict in the external duties of fasting and other religious ceremonies.
And exact all your labors - This is the second reason why their fasting was attended with no more happy results. The margin renders this ‘griefs,’ or things wherewith ye grieve others.’ Lowth renders it, ‘All your demands of labor ye rigorously exact.’ Castellio renders it, ‘And all things which are due to you, you exact.’ The word rendered here ‘labors’ denotes usually hard and painful labor; toil, travail, etc. The Septuagint renders it here, ‘And goad (ὑπονύσσετε huponussete) all those who are under your control’ (τοὺς ὑποχειρίους ὑμῶν tous hupocheirious humōn). The idea seems to be that they were at that time oppressive in exacting all that was due to them; they remitted nothing, they forgave nothing. Alas, how often is this still true! People may be most diligent in the external duties of religion; most abundant in fasting and in prayer, and at the same time most unyielding in demanding all that is due to them. Like Shylock - another Jew like those in the time of Isaiah - they may demand ‘the pound of flesh,’ at the same time that they may be most formal, punctual, precise, and bigoted in the performance of the external duties of religion. The sentiment taught here is, that if we desire to keep a fast that shall be acceptable to God, it must be such as shall cause us to unbind heavy burdens from the poor, and to lead us to relax the rigor of the claims which would be oppressive on those who are subject to us (see Isa 58:6).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv3–7Will. This alone suggested their fasts, and they did…
Will. This alone suggested their fasts, and they did not shew compassion, Ezechiel vii. 2. (Calmet) --- Debtors, who are not able to pay. (St. Jerome) (Deuteronomy xxiv. 12.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv3–7Wherefore--the words of the Jews: "Why is it that,…
Wherefore--the words of the Jews: "Why is it that, when we fast, Thou dost not notice it" (by delivering us)? They think to lay God under obligation to their fasting (Psa 73:13; Mal 3:14).
afflicted . . . soul-- (Lev 16:29).
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Behold--God's reply.
pleasure--in antithesis to their boast of having "afflicted their soul"; it was only in outward show they really enjoyed themselves. GESENIUS not so well translates, "business."
exact . . . labours--rather, "oppressive labors" [MAURER]. HORSLEY, with Vulgate, translates, "Exact the whole upon your debtors"; those who owe you labor (Neh 5:1-5, Neh 5:8-10, &c.).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv3, 53, 4. Wherefore have we fasted, (say they,) and…
3, 4. Wherefore have we fasted, (say they,) and thou seest not — They turn to complaining of God. He does not honour their work-righteousness; does not see it; gives it no attention. The answer is, Ye deserve it not. While pretending solemn devotion, ye exact all your labours — Your grievous tasks. (Gesenius.) Ye do all this for gain. Your devotion to me is all hypocrisy. More than this: ye fast for strife — Your fasting and self-imposed inflictions make you no better. All of it, with the spirit you have, renders you contentious. And… smite with the fist of wickedness. Exo_21:18. Your servants suffer by your fasting. This requires you to be mild, patient to all, and humble before all. Nerves rasped by abstinence should be better under control. Your fasting is an offence “I cannot away with.” Isa_1:11-15.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv3–73. The first half of the verse expresses the…
3. The first half of the verse expresses the people’s sense of disappointment at the failure of their efforts to win the favour of Jehovah; the second half begins the prophet’s exposure of their hypocrisy. There is an incipient Pharisaism in their evident expectation that by external works of righteousness they would hasten the coming of the Messianic salvation. The prophet also maintains that salvation is conditioned by righteousness on the part of the people; but he insists that the righteousness which secures the fulfilment of the promises is ethical righteousness, not the mechanical observance of ceremonial forms.
have we afflicted our soul] see below on Isa_58:5.
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you find pleasure] Rather business (see on ch. Isa_44:28), i.e. “you find opportunity to do a profitable stroke of business.” Cf. Isa_58:13.
and exact all your labours] Or, as R.V. marg., and oppress all your labourers. According to the law of Lev_16:29 a fast implied universal cessation of work, but these men while fasting themselves, extorted from their slaves and hired servants their full tale of work. On slavery in the post-exilic community see Neh_5:5. The translation “labourers” is somewhat uncertain; the word does not occur elsewhere in this sense.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv3–7(3) Wherefore have we fasted . . .—The words…
(3) Wherefore have we fasted . . .—The words remind us of those of a much later prophet (Mal_3:14), but the complaints of the unconscious hypocrites who are amazed that their service is not accepted as sincere are in every age the same. Only one fast, that of the Day of Atonement, was prescribed by the Law. In practice, however, they were often held in times of calamity (comp. Isa_32:12; Joe_1:13; 2Ch_20:3),and we may legitimately think of them as having been more or less frequent under Hezekiah (Isa_37:1-2). Now, as though that had been a meritorious work, the people ask what good had come of it? After the exile fasts were instituted, commemorative of the siege of Jerusalem, its capture, its destruction, and the murder of Gedaliah (Zec_7:3; Zec_8:19), and those who maintain the later date of the book naturally suppose that these are the fasts referred to.
In the day of your fast ye find pleasure . . .—Better, ye carry on your business. Fasts were not governed, like the Sabbath, by a fixed law, and the people consequently lost sight of the true end of fasting—prayer, meditation, penitence.
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Exact all your labours.—The words are rendered by some critics more vividly, though with the same meaning, ye oppress all your labourers. (Comp. Jas_5:4.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv3–7Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest…
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? The fasting" spoken of is probably that of the great Day of Atonement. the only fasting commanded in the Law. (Lev_16:29, Lev_16:31) Other fasts were from time to time appointed by civil or ecclesiastical authority; (1Ki_21:9, 12 2Ch 20:3Jo 2Ch_1:14 2Ch_2:12, 2Ch_2:15) but they were rare, and do not seem to be here intended. Still, the lesson is general, and would apply to all occasions of fasting. The Jews of the time expected, it would seem, some special definite result, in the way of victory or relief, to follow from their observance of the Atonement fast. As it did not follow, they regarded themselves as ill used, and accordingly made complaint. Their feelings approached to those of the Vedic worshippers, who regarded their religious observances as "not merely pleasing. the god who was the object of them, but as laying him under a binding obligation, and almost compelling him to grant the requests of the worshipper" ("Religions of the Ancient World," pp. 143, 144). Afflicted our soul These are the exact words of Lev_16:29, Lev_16:31, by which the fast of the great Day of Atonement was instituted. And thou takest no knowledge; rather, no notice. In the day of your fast ye find pleasure. Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne render, "ye carry on business," which accords better with the clause which follows. The great Day of Atonement was, like the sabbath, a day on which no work was to be done. (Lev_16:29) The Jews, while priding themselves on their observance of the day, did not really observe it in this particular. And exact all your labours; i.e. "require of your servants and subordinates all the services that they have to render on other days." Days of religious observance, even under the Law, were always intended to be days of kindly forbearance towards the poor, of the remission of burdens, or even of the actual giving of relief.
Vers. 3-7. Rightful and wrongful fasting need to be carefully distinguished.
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Among wrong kinds of fasting may be noticed the following.
I PURELY FORMAL FASTING IS WRONG. The fasting that consists in mere abstinence from food, without any accompaniment of prayer or meditation or almsgiving, has in it nothing religious, and is an indifferent act, unless it be viewed as in some sort a pious exercise. Viewed in this light, it is a delusion and a snare an encouragement to men to make all their religion formal, and to trust in mechanical acts as having a power to justify and to save. That which was indifferent in itself becomes wrong through the ill results to which it leads.
II FASTING FOR OSTENTATION"S SAKE IS STILL MORE WRONG. In the time of our Lord"s ministry there were persons among the Jews who, when they fasted, purposely made themselves "of a sad countenance, that they might appear unto men to fast". (Mat_6:16) Their sole object was to attract attention, and obtain a reputation for asceticism in religion beyond their contemporaries. They looked to making a gain out of godliness, and were so far successful that our Lord says, "They had their reward." Men accounted them holier than others, and respected them accordingly, whereas their ostentatious fasting deserved no respect.
III FASTING FOR STRIFE AND DEBATE IS ALSO WRONG. Wherever the practice stirs up "strife and debate," it is for men to ask themselves whether such "strife and debate" are their incentives for maintaining it or no. If they fast for other, sufficient. reasons, it may well be that there is no call upon them to relinquish the practice, because it calls forth opposition even violent and bitter opposition. Christ declared that he "came not to bring peace on earth, but a sword". (Mat_10:34) Whatever is good is sure to be evil spoken of. But, on the other hand, opposition may be courted, may be the real end and aim of those who head the movement. The Jews in Isaiah"s time "fasted for strife and debate;" it is not impossible that Christians may do so now. But if they do, this is certainly not such a fast as is acceptable to the Almighty, or such as will cause the voices of those who keep it to be heard on high.
Rightful fasting such fasting as both the Old and the New Testaments allow and require has also certain tolerably distinct characteristics.
I RIGHTFUL FASTING MUST BE UNOSTENTATIOUS. "Thou, when thou fastest," says our blessed Lord, "anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast." There must be no desire to obtain the praise of men by the observance; there must be no parade of it; so far as possible, it must be done "in secret." Then, and then only, will the "Father, which seeth in secret, reward it openly". (Mat_6:17, Mat_6:18)
II RIGHTFUL FASTING MUST BE NOT MERELY OUTWARD, BUT ALSO INWARD. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness," etc.? Unless fasting be with a spiritual object and accompanied by distinctly spiritual acts, it is absolutely vain and idle. Its natural spiritual concomitants are
(3) almsgiving, and other acts of charity and mercy towards our fellowIsa 58:5-7). To neglect such acts, and to regard the mere opus operatum of fasting as having any spiritual efficacy, is a most dangerous delusion, and one akin to the heresy of Montanus.
Vers. 3, 4. Selfishness spoiling religious habits.
"Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure. " That is, you make your religion a mode of pleasing yourselves. You really enjoy your fastings. Two points may be illustrated and enforced. As introductory, it may be shown that externalism is the special temptation of a people who have been cured of idolatry. Pharisaic formalism is the evil that threatens a nation that rebounds from the notion of many gods to the idea of one, spiritual God. "Self" becomes, in a subtle way, the idol of men"s worship.
I SELF-PLEASING IS AN END GAINED IN RELIGIOUS DUTIES. Those who give themselves heartily to the religious life do come positively to enjoy it. It is the Divine reward of their devotion that they find personal pleasure in their pious works and ways. What strikes us as a most marked contrast between the older and the new religious life is this our fathers found their pleasure in their religion, while we find our pleasure in anything and everything but our religion. The irksomeness of religious services and religious works is the sure sign that we have little or no pleasure in these things. God does not give us this reward because our hearts and energies are not in such things. A kind of force and fear holds us to a round of engagement; relics of old association and of an old sense of duty, keep us to formal acts of worship; but when the heart is gone out of religious service joy goes too. The lost sense of pleasure is not the worst thing" in our spiritual condition, but it may be one of the signs of the worst. Self-pleasure is God"s reward is one of the proper ends of the pious life.
II SELF-PLEASING MUST NOT BE THE END SOUGHT IN RELIGIOUS DUTIES. We need not dwell on the case of the hypocrite, who purposely seeks ends of his own in making his show of piety. It is more searching to deal with the case of the self-deceived, who mistakes the idea of religion, and thinks himself to be serving God when he is only gratifying himself; and with the case of those who act from divided motives, and are always in danger of making self-pleasing the ruling one. God is to be honoured, obeyed, and served for his own sake alone, no matter what a man may get or lose by his service. It is the sternest reproach of some professed followers of God, that "they feared Jehovah, but served their own gods; " it would adapt the expression to modern mistakes if we read it, "They feared the Lord, but lived for ends of self-pleasing." It may be shown that the teachings concerning the heaven which is to be obtained through a religious life are too often presented as an encouragement to self-pleasing. Illustrate by the calamity that befell Pliable, in "Pilgrim"s Progress," who was going on pilgrimage for the sake of what he himself would get by it. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv3, 5, 6, 7Wherefore have we fasted?
Isa_58:3-7
Wherefore have we fasted?
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Fasts
Fasts were a common feature of the old Israelitish religion (1Ki_21:9; 1Ki_21:12; Jer_36:9). In Zec_8:19 we learn expressly that during the exile four days were observed annually as fasts, in commemoration of dates connected with the fall of Jerusalem. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Fasting
I. CONSIDER IN GENERAL THE DUTY OF FASTING, ITS NATURE, ENDS AND USES. As to the meaning of the word, fasting is only an abstinence from food. Whether this abstinence should be total or partial, and how long it should be continued, cannot be determined by any general rule that can reach all persons; but the constitutions and strength of particular persons must be considered, and such abstinence used by them respectively as will best answer in each the ends and uses of fasting. We are not to look upon fasting in itself as a thing that recommends us to God. But there are good ends for which fasting is appointed, and which are promoted by it, that make it acceptable to God regard, therefore, must ever be had to those ends, and such measures taken as may be most conducive to them, and they are chiefly these--
1. For subduing and mortifying the sinful appetites of the body.
2. For the better disposing the mind to prayer and other spiritual exercises. The corruptible body is too apt to press down the immortal soul.
3. For the testifying our shame and sorrow; our anger at ourselves for our sins. We have Gods express command for it to His people the Jews. The prophet Joel frequently and earnestly presses them to this duty. Holy men of old practised it, as we find in the instances of Ezra, David, Daniel, etc. And that we may not think this to be such a Jewish rite, as concerned only those that lived under their dispensation, we read that when the prophet Jonah denounced Gods judgment against Nineveh, those Gentiles proclaimed a fast, and observed it universally from the greatest to the least. And to put this matter out of all doubt, the blessed Author of our holy roll,on, in His Sermon on the Mount, though He does not directly command fasting yet supposes it a duty to be practised by Christians, gives directions for the right performance of it, and upon such a performance assures us of a blessing from our Father in heaven.
II. REFLECT UPON THOSE FAULTS OF THE JEWS RECORDED IN MY TEXT, WHICH MADE THEIR FASTS UNACCEPTABLE TO GOD.
1. Though they used great outward austerity, and severe discipline towards the body, there was no inward change.
2. Their divisions and contentions. Ye fast for strife and debate, etc.
3. Their want of compassion and charity to those that were in affliction (verse 7). A like thread of hypocrisy ran through their fasts, and prayers, and alms, and all their services in our Saviours time.
III. INQUIRE WHETHER WE OF THIS NATION ARE NOT JUSTLY CHARGEABLE WITH THE SAME SINS WHICH THEY COMMITTED, and so severely smarted for; and whether we have not too much reason to fear that God may expostulate with us about our public fasts, as He did with them, Are they such fasts as I have chosen?
IV. PRESS YOU TO THE PRACTICE OF SUCH THINGS AS MAY MAKE THIS DAY OF HUMILIATION AN ACCEPTABLE DAY UNTO THE LORD. And what can do this but our careful avoiding those sins which the Jews are here reproved for, and practising their contrary duties?
1. We must be sure to avoid that foolish and provoking sin of hypocrisy.
2. Also all strife and division. S. Let us take heed of unmercifulness and hard-heartedness to those that are in want and misery; for, with what face can we ask, with what reason can we expect from God, supplies for our wants, or succour in our distress, if we refuse such help as we can give to our poor brethren in their affliction? (Bp. Talbot.)
Incipient Pharisaism
There is an incipient Pharisaism in their evident expectation that by external works of righteousness they would hasten the coming of the Messianic salvation. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Ye fast for strife
J. D. Michaelis tells a story of a lady who was never known to scold her servants so severely as on fast days, which he says agrees well with physiological principles and facts! (J. A. Alexander.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn vv4, 6Isa_58:4. Ye shall not fast as ye do this…
PERIODICAL FASTS
Isa_58:4. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day.
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Periodical fasts, such as the Ritualists would have us keep in Lent, instead of being well pleasing in the sight of God, are offensive to Him.
I. THEY ARE BASED UPON A FALSE CONCEPTION OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD. Their promoters say: “This is to be a season of special religiousness; therefore it is to be a time of mortification, fasting, and gloom. This is a season in which to do special honour to God; therefore let His altars and priests be clad in sad vestments, and let His people weep and lament.” This view makes God find a pleasure in the self-inflicted grievance of His creatures. It implies that blessings which He has lavishly scattered around us are given rather as tests of our faith and self-denial; that they are here, not for us to rejoice in the works of His hands, but by renouncing them to show our love and loyalty to Him. How is such a view at all reconcilable with the love of the Divine Father? Is it thus that we should deal with our children! Is it credible that any parent, of true and loving heart, would take a studious son into a library of books, every one of which were calling to him to come and enrich himself on its treasures; or a child with rich and cultured musical gifts into a room where were exquisite instruments from which he longed to draw forth strains of sweet melody; or a daughter with a passionate love of flowers into a garden which was one blaze of beauty, and then say, “These are yours; but you will please me best if you do not gratify the desire which would lead you to use them? It is not that you would thus impoverish me, for I could easily supply the place of any you might appropriate; but it will please me if you look at them, long for them, and yet abstain from them. I know it will be a great trial; I have little doubt it will make you miserable; but it is that which will please me.” No father, worthy of the name, would be guilty of such heartlessness. Yet it is just this which men ascribe to God, when they fancy that He is pleased if we afflict our souls, bow down our head like a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under us.
II. THEY ARE BASED UPON, AND PROMOTE FALSE VIEWS OF HUMAN DUTY.
1. Their evident tendency is to encourage the old notion of the sinfulness of the material world, the body, and all by which it is nourished and refreshed. It is true that in the New Testament “the flesh” is represented as the natural and deadly foe of the spirit; but “the flesh” denotes not the bodily nature, but the passions and lusts of an unrenewed heart. No doubt these are inflamed by the bodily senses; and if a man finds that fasting helps him to subdue them, let him fast. But to fast under the idea that the body is sinful, and that the more we can mortify it the better—to fast at the cost of physical health and energy is something more than a mistake; it is a sin to sacrifice that health which is one of God’s most precious gifts, and which is so essential to enable us to do the service in the world which He requires at our hands.
2. They lead to a substitution of an outward and bodily for an inward and spiritual service. Bodily fasting is put in the place of that spirit of moderation, self-conquest, and self-sacrifice, which the prophet describes as the true fast. To their selfishness, passion, and worldly pride, the misguided religionists add the pride of self-righteousness, and so their last state is worse than the first. Let us use all aids which can advance us in likeness to Christ, and remember that all religious services which have not this result, whatever else they may have to recommend them, are but as “sounding brass and a tinkling cymbol.”—J. G. Rogers, B.A.: Christian World Pulpit, ii. 145–148.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv3, 4, 6'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'but you do…
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'but you do not see it? Why have we humbled ourselves, but you do not notice?'
The people of Israel use questions to complain to God because they feel he is ignoring them. (See: Rhetorical Question)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv3, 5, 658:3 Fasting should be a time of self-deprivation in…
58:3 Fasting should be a time of self-deprivation in order to focus on God and pleasing him (Lev 16:29; see Zech 7:5). However, these people were only interested in pleasing themselves and continuing in their sins.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 7 He setteth forth the malice and disdain of the…
He setteth forth the malice and disdain of the hypocrites, which grudge against God, if their works be not accepted.
Thus he convinceth the hypocrites by the second table, and by their duty toward their neighbor, that they have neither faith nor religion.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Isa 58:3 Wherefore have we fasted, [say they], and…
Isa 58:3 Wherefore have we fasted, [say they], and thou seest not? [wherefore] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
Ver. 3. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?] Here they begin to bluster, and their hypocrisy to blister out at their lips. {a} God, they held, was not a little beholden to them, and now also in arrears with them. For as that heathen emperor {b} said once of his gods, Non sic deos coluimus, ut iste nos vinceret, We have not served our gods, that they should serve us no better than to allow our enemies to get the better of us; so were these proud pretenders ready to say of God Almighty, We have better deserved than to be so served; rated by these prophets, and evil entreated by our enemies; beaten on both sides. A rich chapman, that hath had a good stock and trading, is loath to be a journeyman again; he will be trading, though it be but for pins; so we, bankrupt in Adam, yet will be doing, and think to be saved for a company of poor beggarly duties, dead prayers, formal fastings, &c., and to set off with God by our good deeds for our bad, as the Papists do, and not a few ignorants among us.
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Behold, in the day of your fast.] Which is called a day of restraint, because therein you should amerce yourselves and abridge yourselves of all sorts of delights.
Ye find pleasure.] Ye find your own desire, pleasure, or will; {c} ye gratify your flesh, pursue your sinful lusts and purposes. Grande malum propria voluntas, saith Bernard, qua fit ut bona tua tibi bona non sint. A man’s own will or pleasure proves a great evil to him many times, making his good duties (fastings, prayers, and the like) no way good to him. In vain is the body macerated, if men’s lusts be not mortified.
And exact all your labours,] i.e., Your debts and dues with rigour and extremity, not considering that utmost right is utmost wrong; and that, howsoever, you should take another time for such work. Feriis iurgia amovento, brawl not on a holiday, was one of the laws of the Twelve Tables in Rome.
{a} Ecce non diu occultant se hypocrisis et superbia. - Oecol.
{b} Antonin., Philos. Referente.
{c} Chephets significat id quod libet.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest…
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? They complain of hard usage from God, that although they prayed, and fasted, and kept the rest of God’s ordinances, all which are synecdochically comprehended under the title of fasting, all their labour was lost, and God neither regarded nor delivered them.
Afflicted our soul; defrauded and pinched our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Lev 16:29; 23:27,29.
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In the day of your fast; in those solemn days of fasting which I have appointed; or, in those times when I have called you by the course of my providence, and counsels of my prophets, unto fasting, and weeping, and mourning, &c., Isa 22:12. Ye find pleasure; either,
1. You indulge yourselves in sensuality, as they did, Isa 22:13. But this doth not agree with that afflicting of their souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledgeth, Isa 58:5. Or rather,
2. You pursue and satisfy your own lusts; though you abstain from bodily food, you do not mortify your own sinful concupiscences; and when you are restrained from outwards acts, yet even then your thoughts and affections are set upon and working toward those things which gratify your fleshly inclinations and worldly interests.
Your labours; your money got by your labour, and lent to others, either for their need, or your own advantage; for labour is oft put for wealth, as Deu 28:33; Isa 45:14, &c. Heb. your griefs; not passively, those things which are grievous to you; but actively, such as are very grievous and burdensome to others; either hard service, above the strength of your servants, or beyond the time limited by God for their service, of which see an instance, Jer 34:13-16; or debts, which you require either with usury, or at least with rigour and cruelty, when either the general law of charity, or God’s particular and positive law, commanded the release, or at least the forbearance, of them; of which see an instance, Neh 5:1,2, &c.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v3 Here we have, I. The displeasure which these hypocrites…
Here we have, I. The displeasure which these hypocrites conceived against God for not accepting the services which they themselves had a mighty opinion of (Isa 58:3): Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Thus they went in the way of Cain, who was angry at God, and resented it as a gross affront that his offering was not accepted. Having gone about to put a cheat upon God by their external services, here they go about to pick a quarrel with God for not being pleased with their services, as if he had not done fairly or justly by them. Observe, 1. How they boast of themselves, and magnify their own performances: "We have fasted, and afflicted our souls; we have not only sought God daily (Isa 58:2), but have kept some certain times of more solemn devotion." Some think this refers to the yearly fast (which was called the day of atonement), others to their arbitrary occasional fasts. Note, It is common for unhumbled hearts to be proud of their professions of humiliation, as the Pharisee (Luk 18:12), I fast twice in the week. 2. What they expected from their performances. They thought God should take great notice of them, and own himself a debtor to them for their services. Note, It is a common thing for hypocrites, while they perform the external services of religion, to promise themselves that acceptance with God which he has promised only to the sincere; as if they must be accepted of course, or for a compliment. 3. How heinously they take it that God had not put some particular marks of his favour upon them, that he had not immediately delivered them out of their troubles and advanced them to honour and prosperity. They charge God with injustice and partiality, and seem resolved to throw up their religion, and justify themselves in doing so with this, that they had found no profit in praying to God, Job 21:14, Job 21:15; Mal 3:14. Note, Reigning hypocrisy often breaks out in daring impiety and an open contempt and reproach of God and religion for that which the hypocrisy itself must bear all the blame of. Sinners reflect upon religion as a hard and melancholy service, and on which there is nothing to be got by, when really it is owing to themselves that it seems so to them, because they are not sincere in it.
II. The true reason assigned why God did not accept their fastings, nor answer the prayers they made on their fast-days; it was because they did not fast aright - to God, even to him, Zac 7:5. They fasted indeed, but they persisted in their sins, and did not, as the Ninevites, turn every one from his evil way; but in the day of their fast, notwithstanding the professed humiliations and covenants of that day, they went on to find pleasure, that is, to do whatsoever seemed right in their own eyes, lawful or unlawful, quicquid libet, licet - making their inclinations their law; though they seemed to afflict their souls, they still gratified their lusts as much as ever. 1. They were as covetous and unmerciful as ever: "You exact all your labours from your servants, and will neither release them according to the law nor relax the rigour of their servitude." This was their fault before the captivity, Jer 34:8, Jer 34:9. It was no less their fault after their captivity, notwithstanding all their solemn fasts, Neh 5:5. "You exact all your dues, your debts" (so some read it); "you are as rigorous and severe in extorting what you demand from those that are poor as ever you were, though it was at the close of the yearly fast that the release was proclaimed." 2. They were contentious and spiteful (Isa 58:4): Behold, you fast for strife and debate. When they proclaimed a fast to deprecate God's judgments, they pretended to search for those sins which provoked God to threaten them with his judgments, and under that pretence perhaps particular persons were falsely accused, as Naboth in the day of Jezebel's fast, Kg1 21:12. Or the contending parties among them upon those occasions were bitter and severe in their reflections one upon another, one side crying out, "It is owing to you," and the other, "It is owing to you, that our deliverance is not wrought." Thus, instead of judging themselves, which is the proper work of a fast-day, they condemned one another. They fasted for strife, with emulation which should make the most plausible appearance on a fast-day and humour the matter best. Nor was it only tongue-quarrels that were fomented in the times of their fasting, but they came to blows too: You smite with the fist of wickedness. The cruel task-masters beat their servants, and the creditors their insolvent debtors, whom they delivered to the tormentors; they abused poor innocents with wicked hands. Now while they thus continued in sin, in those very sins which were directly contrary to the intention of a fasting day, (1.) God would not allow them the use of such solemnities: "You shall not fast at all if you fast as you do this day, causing your voice to be heard on high, in the heat of your clamours one against another, or in your devotions, which you perform so as to make them to be taken notice of for ostentation. Bring me no more of these empty, noisy, vain oblations," Isa 1:13. Note, Those are justly forbidden the honour of a profession of religion that will not submit to the power of it. (2.) He would not accept of them in the use of them: "You shall not fast, that is, it shall not be looked upon as a fast, nor shall the voice of your prayers on those days be heard on high in heaven." Note, Those that fast and pray, and yet go on in their wicked ways, do but mock God and deceive themselves.
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III. Plain instructions given concerning the true nature of a religious fast.
1. In general, a fast is intended, (1.) For the honouring and pleasing of God. It must be such a performance as he has chosen (Isa 58:5); it must be an acceptable day to the Lord, in the duties of which we must study to approve ourselves to him and obtain his favour, else it is not a fast, else there is nothing done to any purpose. (2.) For the humbling and abasing of ourselves. A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it do not express a genuine sorrow for sin, and do not promote a real mortification of sin, it is not a fast; the law of the day of atonement was that on that day they should afflict their souls, Lev 16:29. That must be done on a fast-day which is a real affliction to the soul, as far as it is yet unregenerate and unsanctified, though a real pleasure and advantage to the soul as far as it is itself.
2. It concerns us therefore to enquire, on a fast-day, what it is that will be acceptable to God, and afflictive to our corrupt nature, and tending to its mortification.
(1.) We are here told negatively what is not the fast that God has chosen, and which does not amount to the afflicting of the soul. [1.] It is not enough to look demure, to put on a grave and melancholy aspect, to bow down the head like a bulrush that is withered and broken: as the hypocrites, that were of a sad countenance, and disfigured their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast, Mat 6:16. Hanging down the head did indeed well enough become the publican, whose heart was truly humbled and broken for sin, and who therefore, in token of that, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven (Luk 18:13); but when it was only mimicked, as here, it was justly ridiculed: it is but hanging down the head like a bulrush, which nobody regards or takes any notice of. As the hypocrite's humiliations are but like the hanging down of a bulrush, so his elevations in his hopes are but like the flourishing of a bulrush (Job 8:11, Job 8:12), which, while it is yet in its greenness, withers before any other herb. [2.] It is not enough to do penance, to mortify the body a little, while the body of sin is untouched. It is not enough for a man to spread sackcloth and ashes under him, which may indeed give him some uneasiness for the present, but will soon be forgotten when he returns to stretch himself upon his beds of ivory, Amo 6:4. Wilt thou call this a fast? No, it is but the shadow and carcase of a fast. Wilt thou call this an acceptable day to the Lord? No, it is so far from being so that the hypocrisy of it is an abomination to him. Note, The shows of religion, though they show ever so fair in the eye of the world, will not be accepted of God without the substance of it.
(2.) We are here told positively what is the fast that God has chosen, what that is which will recommend a fast-day to the divine acceptance, and what is indeed afflicting the soul, that is, crushing and subduing the corrupt nature. It is not afflicting the soul for a day (as some read it, Isa 58:5) that will serve; no, it must be the business of our whole lives. It is here required, [1.] That we be just to those with whom we have dealt hardly. The fast that God has chosen consists in reforming our lives and undoing what we have done amiss (Isa 58:6): To loose the bands of wickedness, the bands which we have wickedly tied, and by which others are bound out from their right or bound down under severe usage. Those which perhaps were at first bands of justice, tying men to pay a due debt, become, when the debt is exacted with rigour from those whom Providence has reduced and emptied, bands of wickedness, and they must be loosed, or they will bring us into bonds of guilt much more terrible. It is to undo the heavy burden laid on the back of the poor servant, under which he is ready to sink. It is to let the oppressed go free from the oppression which makes his life bitter to him. "Let the prisoner for debt that has nothing to pay be discharged, let the vexatious action be quashed, let the servant that is forcibly detained beyond the time of his servitude be released, and thus break every yoke; not only let go those that are wrongfully kept under the yoke, but break the yoke of slavery itself, that it may not serve again another time nor any by made again to serve under it." [2.] That we be charitable to those that stand in need of charity, Isa 58:7. The particulars in the former verse may be taken as acts of charity, that we not only release those whom we have unjustly oppressed - that is justice, but that we contribute to the rescue and ransom of those that are oppressed by others, to the release of captives and the payment of the debts of the poor; but those in this verse are plainly acts of charity. This then is the fast that God has chosen. First, To provide food for those that want it. This is put first, as the most necessary, and which the poor can but a little while live without. It is to break thy bread to the hungry. Observe, "It must be thy bread, that which is honestly got (not that which thou hast robbed others of), the bread which thou thyself hast occasion for, the bread of thy allowance." We must deny ourselves, that we may have to give to him that needeth. "Thy bread which thou hast spared from thyself and thy family, on the fast-day, if that, or the value of it, be not given to the poor, it is the miser's fast, which he makes a hand of; it is fasting for the world, not for God. This is the true fast, to break thy bread to the hungry, not only to give them that which is already broken meat, but to break bread on purpose for them, to give them loaves and not to put them off with scraps." Secondly, To provide lodging for those that want it: It is to take care of the poor that are cast out, that are forced from their dwelling, turned out of house and harbour, are cast out as rebels (so some critics render it), that are attainted, and whom therefore it is highly penal to protect. "If they suffer unjustly, make no difficulty of sheltering them; do not only find out quarters for them and pay for their lodging elsewhere, but, which is a greater act of kindness, bring them to thy own house, make them thy own guests. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for though thou mayest not, as some have done, thereby entertain angels, thou mayest entertain Christ himself, who will recompense it in the resurrection of the just. I was a stranger and you took me in." Thirdly, To provide clothing for those that want it: "When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, both to shelter him from the injuries of the weather and to enable him to appear decently among his neighbours; give him clothes to come to church in, and in these and other instances hide not thyself from thy own flesh." Some understand it more strictly of a man's own kindred and relations: "If those of thy own house and family fall into decay, thou art worse than an infidel if thou dost not provide for them." Ti1 5:8. Others understand it more generally; all that partake of the human nature are to be looked upon as our own flesh, for have we not all one Father? And for this reason we must not hide ourselves from them, not contrive to be out of the way when a poor petitioner enquires for us, not look another way when a moving object of charity and compassion presents itself; let us remember that they are flesh of our flesh and therefore we ought to sympathize with them, and in doing good to them we really do good to our own flesh and spirit too in the issue; for thus we lay up for ourselves a good foundation, a good bond, for the time to come.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest…
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?.... Our fasting; takest no notice of it; expresses no approbation of it, and pleasure in it: this is put for all religious services, being what was frequently performed under the Old Testament, not only at certain times appointed by the Lord, but on other occasions, and of their own fixing; in which they put their confidence, and often boasted of, Luk 18:12, "wherefore have we afflicted our soul", by fasting, "and thou takest no knowledge?" of that, nor of us, and dost not save us from our enemies, and deliver us from our troubles, and bestow favours on us: they had a high opinion of their own performances, and thought that God must have likewise; and were displeased that he showed no more regard unto them:
behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure; this, and what follows in the two next verses, are an answer to their questions, and give reasons why the Lord took no more notice of their fasting, or of their services; because they were not done aright, they found their own pleasure in them; not that they indulged to bodily recreations and carnal delights, but they gratified the inward desires of the flesh, malice, envy, and the like; and they pleased themselves with their own duties, and fancied they procured the favour of God by them:
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and exact all your labours; of their servants, or their money of their debtors; they grieved and afflicted their debtors, by demanding their debts of them, as Jarchi interprets it; and that in a very rigorous manner, requiring whole and immediate payment; or, as it is usual with establishments, they require an exact conformity to their manner of service, worship, and discipline.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Afflicted - Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which…
Afflicted - Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Levit xvi, 29. Ye find - Either you indulge yourselves in sensuality, as they did, chap. xxii, 13. But this does not agree with that afflicting of their souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledges; or you pursue and satisfy your own desires: though you abstain from bodily food, you do not mortify your sinful inclinations. Exact - Your money, got by your labour, and lent to others, either for their need or your own advantage, which you require either with usury, or at least with rigor, when either the general law of charity, or God's particular law, commanded the release, or at least the forbearance of them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 7 Verse 3. Have we adopted our soul - "Have…
Verse 3. Have we adopted our soul - "Have we afflicted our souls"] Twenty-seven MSS. (six ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, thirty-six of De Rossi's, and two of my own, and the old edition of 1488 have the noun in the plural number, נפשינו naphsheynu, our souls; and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulgate. This reading is undoubtedly genuine.
In the day of your fast ye find pleasure] Fast days are generally called holidays, and holidays are days of idleness and pleasure. In numberless cases the fast is turned into a feast.
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And exact all your labours.] Some disregard the most sacred fast, and will oblige their servant to work all day long; others use fast days for the purpose of settling their accounts, posting up their books, and drawing out their bills to be ready to collect their debts. These are sneaking hypocrites; the others are daringly irreligious.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 7 Isa 58:3. Wherefore have we fasted, &c. — They…
Isa 58:3. Wherefore have we fasted, &c. — They complain of hard usage from God; that although they prayed, and fasted, and observed the rest of his ordinances, all which are comprehended under the title of fasting, all their labour was lost, and God neither delivered nor regarded them. Wherefore have we afflicted our soul — Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Lev 16:29; Lev 23:27; Lev 23:29. Behold, in the day of your fast — In those solemn days of fasting which I have appointed; or, in those times when I have called you, by the course of my providence, and counsels of my prophets, unto fasting, and weeping, and mourning, Isa 22:12; ye find pleasure, and exact, &c. — Or, as the words may be more significantly rendered, You find wherewithal to please yourselves, and are rigorous in grieving, or burdening, others: that is, You gratify your own passions, especially your covetousness, and you oppress the poor, and so are defective in the duties of justice and charity. By labours may be meant money gotten by labour, and lent to others, either for their need or the lender’s advantage. For labour is often put for the fruit of labour, as Deu 28:33; Isa 45:14. But the Hebrew here, עצביכם, is literally, your griefs, namely, the things which cause griefs, which are grievous and burdensome to others, as either, 1st, Hard service required of servants above their strength, or beyond the time limited by God for their service, of which see Jer 34:13-16: or, 2d, Debts, which they required, either with usury or with rigour and cruelty, when the general law of charity, or God’s particular law, enjoined the release, or, at least, the forbearance of them. See Neh 5:1-2.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Wherefore have we fasted - They had fasted much,…
Wherefore have we fasted - They had fasted much, evidently with the expectation of delivering themselves from impending calamities, and securing the divine favor. They are here introduced as saying that they had been disappointed. God had not interposed as they had expected. Chagrined and mortified, they now complain that he had not noticed their very conscientious and faithful regard for the duties of religion.
And thou seest not? - All had been in vain. Calamities still impended; judgments threatened; and there were no tokens of the divine approbation. Hypocrites depend on their fastings and prayers as laying God under obligation to save them. If he does not interpose, they complain and murmur. When fasting is the result of a humble and broken heart, it is acceptable; when it is instituted as a means of purchasing the divine favor, and as laying God under obligation, it can be followed by no happy result to the soul.
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Have we afflicted our soul - By fasting. Twenty-one manuscripts (six ancient), says Lowth, have this in the plural number - ‘our souls’ and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and the Vulgate. The sense is not materially affected, however. It is evident here that they regarded their numerous fastings as laying the foundation of a claim on the favor of God, and that they were disposed to complain when that claim was not acknowledged. Fasting, like other religious duties, is proper; but in that, as in all other services of religion, there is danger of supposing that we bring God under obligations, and that we are laying the foundation of a claim to his favor.
Thou takest no knowledge - Thou dost not regard our numerous acts of self-denial.
Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure - The prophet here proceeds to state the reasons why their fastings were not succeeded as they supposed they would be, by the divine favor. The first reason which he states is, that even when they were fasting, they were giving full indulgence to their depraved appetites and lusts. The Syriac has well rendered this, ‘In the day of your fasting you indulge your lusts, and draw near to all your idols.’ This also was evidently the case with the Jews in the time of the Saviour. They were Characterized repeatedly by him as ‘an evil and adulterous generation,’ and yet no generation perhaps was ever more punctual and strict in the external duties of fasting and other religious ceremonies.
And exact all your labors - This is the second reason why their fasting was attended with no more happy results. The margin renders this ‘griefs,’ or things wherewith ye grieve others.’ Lowth renders it, ‘All your demands of labor ye rigorously exact.’ Castellio renders it, ‘And all things which are due to you, you exact.’ The word rendered here ‘labors’ denotes usually hard and painful labor; toil, travail, etc. The Septuagint renders it here, ‘And goad (ὑπονύσσετε huponussete) all those who are under your control’ (τοὺς ὑποχειρίους ὑμῶν tous hupocheirious humōn). The idea seems to be that they were at that time oppressive in exacting all that was due to them; they remitted nothing, they forgave nothing. Alas, how often is this still true! People may be most diligent in the external duties of religion; most abundant in fasting and in prayer, and at the same time most unyielding in demanding all that is due to them. Like Shylock - another Jew like those in the time of Isaiah - they may demand ‘the pound of flesh,’ at the same time that they may be most formal, punctual, precise, and bigoted in the performance of the external duties of religion. The sentiment taught here is, that if we desire to keep a fast that shall be acceptable to God, it must be such as shall cause us to unbind heavy burdens from the poor, and to lead us to relax the rigor of the claims which would be oppressive on those who are subject to us (see Isa 58:6).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Will. This alone suggested their fasts, and they did…
Will. This alone suggested their fasts, and they did not shew compassion, Ezechiel vii. 2. (Calmet) --- Debtors, who are not able to pay. (St. Jerome) (Deuteronomy xxiv. 12.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Wherefore--the words of the Jews: "Why is it that,…
Wherefore--the words of the Jews: "Why is it that, when we fast, Thou dost not notice it" (by delivering us)? They think to lay God under obligation to their fasting (Psa 73:13; Mal 3:14).
afflicted . . . soul-- (Lev 16:29).
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Behold--God's reply.
pleasure--in antithesis to their boast of having "afflicted their soul"; it was only in outward show they really enjoyed themselves. GESENIUS not so well translates, "business."
exact . . . labours--rather, "oppressive labors" [MAURER]. HORSLEY, with Vulgate, translates, "Exact the whole upon your debtors"; those who owe you labor (Neh 5:1-5, Neh 5:8-10, &c.).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 3, 4. Wherefore have we fasted, (say they,) and…
3, 4. Wherefore have we fasted, (say they,) and thou seest not — They turn to complaining of God. He does not honour their work-righteousness; does not see it; gives it no attention. The answer is, Ye deserve it not. While pretending solemn devotion, ye exact all your labours — Your grievous tasks. (Gesenius.) Ye do all this for gain. Your devotion to me is all hypocrisy. More than this: ye fast for strife — Your fasting and self-imposed inflictions make you no better. All of it, with the spirit you have, renders you contentious. And… smite with the fist of wickedness. Exo_21:18. Your servants suffer by your fasting. This requires you to be mild, patient to all, and humble before all. Nerves rasped by abstinence should be better under control. Your fasting is an offence “I cannot away with.” Isa_1:11-15.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–7 3. The first half of the verse expresses the…
3. The first half of the verse expresses the people’s sense of disappointment at the failure of their efforts to win the favour of Jehovah; the second half begins the prophet’s exposure of their hypocrisy. There is an incipient Pharisaism in their evident expectation that by external works of righteousness they would hasten the coming of the Messianic salvation. The prophet also maintains that salvation is conditioned by righteousness on the part of the people; but he insists that the righteousness which secures the fulfilment of the promises is ethical righteousness, not the mechanical observance of ceremonial forms.
have we afflicted our soul] see below on Isa_58:5.
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you find pleasure] Rather business (see on ch. Isa_44:28), i.e. “you find opportunity to do a profitable stroke of business.” Cf. Isa_58:13.
and exact all your labours] Or, as R.V. marg., and oppress all your labourers. According to the law of Lev_16:29 a fast implied universal cessation of work, but these men while fasting themselves, extorted from their slaves and hired servants their full tale of work. On slavery in the post-exilic community see Neh_5:5. The translation “labourers” is somewhat uncertain; the word does not occur elsewhere in this sense.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–7 (3) Wherefore have we fasted . . .—The words…
(3) Wherefore have we fasted . . .—The words remind us of those of a much later prophet (Mal_3:14), but the complaints of the unconscious hypocrites who are amazed that their service is not accepted as sincere are in every age the same. Only one fast, that of the Day of Atonement, was prescribed by the Law. In practice, however, they were often held in times of calamity (comp. Isa_32:12; Joe_1:13; 2Ch_20:3),and we may legitimately think of them as having been more or less frequent under Hezekiah (Isa_37:1-2). Now, as though that had been a meritorious work, the people ask what good had come of it? After the exile fasts were instituted, commemorative of the siege of Jerusalem, its capture, its destruction, and the murder of Gedaliah (Zec_7:3; Zec_8:19), and those who maintain the later date of the book naturally suppose that these are the fasts referred to.
In the day of your fast ye find pleasure . . .—Better, ye carry on your business. Fasts were not governed, like the Sabbath, by a fixed law, and the people consequently lost sight of the true end of fasting—prayer, meditation, penitence.
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Exact all your labours.—The words are rendered by some critics more vividly, though with the same meaning, ye oppress all your labourers. (Comp. Jas_5:4.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–7 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest…
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? The fasting" spoken of is probably that of the great Day of Atonement. the only fasting commanded in the Law. (Lev_16:29, Lev_16:31) Other fasts were from time to time appointed by civil or ecclesiastical authority; (1Ki_21:9, 12 2Ch 20:3Jo 2Ch_1:14 2Ch_2:12, 2Ch_2:15) but they were rare, and do not seem to be here intended. Still, the lesson is general, and would apply to all occasions of fasting. The Jews of the time expected, it would seem, some special definite result, in the way of victory or relief, to follow from their observance of the Atonement fast. As it did not follow, they regarded themselves as ill used, and accordingly made complaint. Their feelings approached to those of the Vedic worshippers, who regarded their religious observances as "not merely pleasing. the god who was the object of them, but as laying him under a binding obligation, and almost compelling him to grant the requests of the worshipper" ("Religions of the Ancient World," pp. 143, 144). Afflicted our soul These are the exact words of Lev_16:29, Lev_16:31, by which the fast of the great Day of Atonement was instituted. And thou takest no knowledge; rather, no notice. In the day of your fast ye find pleasure. Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne render, "ye carry on business," which accords better with the clause which follows. The great Day of Atonement was, like the sabbath, a day on which no work was to be done. (Lev_16:29) The Jews, while priding themselves on their observance of the day, did not really observe it in this particular. And exact all your labours; i.e. "require of your servants and subordinates all the services that they have to render on other days." Days of religious observance, even under the Law, were always intended to be days of kindly forbearance towards the poor, of the remission of burdens, or even of the actual giving of relief.
Vers. 3-7. Rightful and wrongful fasting need to be carefully distinguished.
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Among wrong kinds of fasting may be noticed the following.
I PURELY FORMAL FASTING IS WRONG. The fasting that consists in mere abstinence from food, without any accompaniment of prayer or meditation or almsgiving, has in it nothing religious, and is an indifferent act, unless it be viewed as in some sort a pious exercise. Viewed in this light, it is a delusion and a snare an encouragement to men to make all their religion formal, and to trust in mechanical acts as having a power to justify and to save. That which was indifferent in itself becomes wrong through the ill results to which it leads.
II FASTING FOR OSTENTATION"S SAKE IS STILL MORE WRONG. In the time of our Lord"s ministry there were persons among the Jews who, when they fasted, purposely made themselves "of a sad countenance, that they might appear unto men to fast". (Mat_6:16) Their sole object was to attract attention, and obtain a reputation for asceticism in religion beyond their contemporaries. They looked to making a gain out of godliness, and were so far successful that our Lord says, "They had their reward." Men accounted them holier than others, and respected them accordingly, whereas their ostentatious fasting deserved no respect.
III FASTING FOR STRIFE AND DEBATE IS ALSO WRONG. Wherever the practice stirs up "strife and debate," it is for men to ask themselves whether such "strife and debate" are their incentives for maintaining it or no. If they fast for other, sufficient. reasons, it may well be that there is no call upon them to relinquish the practice, because it calls forth opposition even violent and bitter opposition. Christ declared that he "came not to bring peace on earth, but a sword". (Mat_10:34) Whatever is good is sure to be evil spoken of. But, on the other hand, opposition may be courted, may be the real end and aim of those who head the movement. The Jews in Isaiah"s time "fasted for strife and debate;" it is not impossible that Christians may do so now. But if they do, this is certainly not such a fast as is acceptable to the Almighty, or such as will cause the voices of those who keep it to be heard on high.
Rightful fasting such fasting as both the Old and the New Testaments allow and require has also certain tolerably distinct characteristics.
I RIGHTFUL FASTING MUST BE UNOSTENTATIOUS. "Thou, when thou fastest," says our blessed Lord, "anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast." There must be no desire to obtain the praise of men by the observance; there must be no parade of it; so far as possible, it must be done "in secret." Then, and then only, will the "Father, which seeth in secret, reward it openly". (Mat_6:17, Mat_6:18)
II RIGHTFUL FASTING MUST BE NOT MERELY OUTWARD, BUT ALSO INWARD. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness," etc.? Unless fasting be with a spiritual object and accompanied by distinctly spiritual acts, it is absolutely vain and idle. Its natural spiritual concomitants are
(1) repentance; (1Ki_21:27 Neh_9:1, 2Jn_1:2:12, 13Joh_2:5-10, etc.)
(2) prayer; (Dan 9:3Jo Dan_2:17)
(3) almsgiving, and other acts of charity and mercy towards our fellowIsa 58:5-7). To neglect such acts, and to regard the mere opus operatum of fasting as having any spiritual efficacy, is a most dangerous delusion, and one akin to the heresy of Montanus.
Vers. 3, 4. Selfishness spoiling religious habits.
"Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure. " That is, you make your religion a mode of pleasing yourselves. You really enjoy your fastings. Two points may be illustrated and enforced. As introductory, it may be shown that externalism is the special temptation of a people who have been cured of idolatry. Pharisaic formalism is the evil that threatens a nation that rebounds from the notion of many gods to the idea of one, spiritual God. "Self" becomes, in a subtle way, the idol of men"s worship.
I SELF-PLEASING IS AN END GAINED IN RELIGIOUS DUTIES. Those who give themselves heartily to the religious life do come positively to enjoy it. It is the Divine reward of their devotion that they find personal pleasure in their pious works and ways. What strikes us as a most marked contrast between the older and the new religious life is this our fathers found their pleasure in their religion, while we find our pleasure in anything and everything but our religion. The irksomeness of religious services and religious works is the sure sign that we have little or no pleasure in these things. God does not give us this reward because our hearts and energies are not in such things. A kind of force and fear holds us to a round of engagement; relics of old association and of an old sense of duty, keep us to formal acts of worship; but when the heart is gone out of religious service joy goes too. The lost sense of pleasure is not the worst thing" in our spiritual condition, but it may be one of the signs of the worst. Self-pleasure is God"s reward is one of the proper ends of the pious life.
II SELF-PLEASING MUST NOT BE THE END SOUGHT IN RELIGIOUS DUTIES. We need not dwell on the case of the hypocrite, who purposely seeks ends of his own in making his show of piety. It is more searching to deal with the case of the self-deceived, who mistakes the idea of religion, and thinks himself to be serving God when he is only gratifying himself; and with the case of those who act from divided motives, and are always in danger of making self-pleasing the ruling one. God is to be honoured, obeyed, and served for his own sake alone, no matter what a man may get or lose by his service. It is the sternest reproach of some professed followers of God, that "they feared Jehovah, but served their own gods; " it would adapt the expression to modern mistakes if we read it, "They feared the Lord, but lived for ends of self-pleasing." It may be shown that the teachings concerning the heaven which is to be obtained through a religious life are too often presented as an encouragement to self-pleasing. Illustrate by the calamity that befell Pliable, in "Pilgrim"s Progress," who was going on pilgrimage for the sake of what he himself would get by it. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 6, 7 Wherefore have we fasted?
Isa_58:3-7
Wherefore have we fasted?
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Fasts
Fasts were a common feature of the old Israelitish religion (1Ki_21:9; 1Ki_21:12; Jer_36:9). In Zec_8:19 we learn expressly that during the exile four days were observed annually as fasts, in commemoration of dates connected with the fall of Jerusalem. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Fasting
I. CONSIDER IN GENERAL THE DUTY OF FASTING, ITS NATURE, ENDS AND USES. As to the meaning of the word, fasting is only an abstinence from food. Whether this abstinence should be total or partial, and how long it should be continued, cannot be determined by any general rule that can reach all persons; but the constitutions and strength of particular persons must be considered, and such abstinence used by them respectively as will best answer in each the ends and uses of fasting. We are not to look upon fasting in itself as a thing that recommends us to God. But there are good ends for which fasting is appointed, and which are promoted by it, that make it acceptable to God regard, therefore, must ever be had to those ends, and such measures taken as may be most conducive to them, and they are chiefly these--
1. For subduing and mortifying the sinful appetites of the body.
2. For the better disposing the mind to prayer and other spiritual exercises. The corruptible body is too apt to press down the immortal soul.
3. For the testifying our shame and sorrow; our anger at ourselves for our sins. We have Gods express command for it to His people the Jews. The prophet Joel frequently and earnestly presses them to this duty. Holy men of old practised it, as we find in the instances of Ezra, David, Daniel, etc. And that we may not think this to be such a Jewish rite, as concerned only those that lived under their dispensation, we read that when the prophet Jonah denounced Gods judgment against Nineveh, those Gentiles proclaimed a fast, and observed it universally from the greatest to the least. And to put this matter out of all doubt, the blessed Author of our holy roll,on, in His Sermon on the Mount, though He does not directly command fasting yet supposes it a duty to be practised by Christians, gives directions for the right performance of it, and upon such a performance assures us of a blessing from our Father in heaven.
II. REFLECT UPON THOSE FAULTS OF THE JEWS RECORDED IN MY TEXT, WHICH MADE THEIR FASTS UNACCEPTABLE TO GOD.
1. Though they used great outward austerity, and severe discipline towards the body, there was no inward change.
2. Their divisions and contentions. Ye fast for strife and debate, etc.
3. Their want of compassion and charity to those that were in affliction (verse 7). A like thread of hypocrisy ran through their fasts, and prayers, and alms, and all their services in our Saviours time.
III. INQUIRE WHETHER WE OF THIS NATION ARE NOT JUSTLY CHARGEABLE WITH THE SAME SINS WHICH THEY COMMITTED, and so severely smarted for; and whether we have not too much reason to fear that God may expostulate with us about our public fasts, as He did with them, Are they such fasts as I have chosen?
IV. PRESS YOU TO THE PRACTICE OF SUCH THINGS AS MAY MAKE THIS DAY OF HUMILIATION AN ACCEPTABLE DAY UNTO THE LORD. And what can do this but our careful avoiding those sins which the Jews are here reproved for, and practising their contrary duties?
1. We must be sure to avoid that foolish and provoking sin of hypocrisy.
2. Also all strife and division. S. Let us take heed of unmercifulness and hard-heartedness to those that are in want and misery; for, with what face can we ask, with what reason can we expect from God, supplies for our wants, or succour in our distress, if we refuse such help as we can give to our poor brethren in their affliction? (Bp. Talbot.)
Incipient Pharisaism
There is an incipient Pharisaism in their evident expectation that by external works of righteousness they would hasten the coming of the Messianic salvation. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Ye fast for strife
J. D. Michaelis tells a story of a lady who was never known to scold her servants so severely as on fast days, which he says agrees well with physiological principles and facts! (J. A. Alexander.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv4, 6 Isa_58:4. Ye shall not fast as ye do this…
PERIODICAL FASTS
Isa_58:4. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day.
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Periodical fasts, such as the Ritualists would have us keep in Lent, instead of being well pleasing in the sight of God, are offensive to Him.
I. THEY ARE BASED UPON A FALSE CONCEPTION OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD. Their promoters say: “This is to be a season of special religiousness; therefore it is to be a time of mortification, fasting, and gloom. This is a season in which to do special honour to God; therefore let His altars and priests be clad in sad vestments, and let His people weep and lament.” This view makes God find a pleasure in the self-inflicted grievance of His creatures. It implies that blessings which He has lavishly scattered around us are given rather as tests of our faith and self-denial; that they are here, not for us to rejoice in the works of His hands, but by renouncing them to show our love and loyalty to Him. How is such a view at all reconcilable with the love of the Divine Father? Is it thus that we should deal with our children! Is it credible that any parent, of true and loving heart, would take a studious son into a library of books, every one of which were calling to him to come and enrich himself on its treasures; or a child with rich and cultured musical gifts into a room where were exquisite instruments from which he longed to draw forth strains of sweet melody; or a daughter with a passionate love of flowers into a garden which was one blaze of beauty, and then say, “These are yours; but you will please me best if you do not gratify the desire which would lead you to use them? It is not that you would thus impoverish me, for I could easily supply the place of any you might appropriate; but it will please me if you look at them, long for them, and yet abstain from them. I know it will be a great trial; I have little doubt it will make you miserable; but it is that which will please me.” No father, worthy of the name, would be guilty of such heartlessness. Yet it is just this which men ascribe to God, when they fancy that He is pleased if we afflict our souls, bow down our head like a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under us.
II. THEY ARE BASED UPON, AND PROMOTE FALSE VIEWS OF HUMAN DUTY.
1. Their evident tendency is to encourage the old notion of the sinfulness of the material world, the body, and all by which it is nourished and refreshed. It is true that in the New Testament “the flesh” is represented as the natural and deadly foe of the spirit; but “the flesh” denotes not the bodily nature, but the passions and lusts of an unrenewed heart. No doubt these are inflamed by the bodily senses; and if a man finds that fasting helps him to subdue them, let him fast. But to fast under the idea that the body is sinful, and that the more we can mortify it the better—to fast at the cost of physical health and energy is something more than a mistake; it is a sin to sacrifice that health which is one of God’s most precious gifts, and which is so essential to enable us to do the service in the world which He requires at our hands.
2. They lead to a substitution of an outward and bodily for an inward and spiritual service. Bodily fasting is put in the place of that spirit of moderation, self-conquest, and self-sacrifice, which the prophet describes as the true fast. To their selfishness, passion, and worldly pride, the misguided religionists add the pride of self-righteousness, and so their last state is worse than the first. Let us use all aids which can advance us in likeness to Christ, and remember that all religious services which have not this result, whatever else they may have to recommend them, are but as “sounding brass and a tinkling cymbol.”—J. G. Rogers, B.A.: Christian World Pulpit, ii. 145–148.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 4, 6 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'but you do…
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'but you do not see it? Why have we humbled ourselves, but you do not notice?'
The people of Israel use questions to complain to God because they feel he is ignoring them. (See: Rhetorical Question)
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translationWords
fast
humble
oppress
labor
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5, 6 58:3 Fasting should be a time of self-deprivation in…
58:3 Fasting should be a time of self-deprivation in order to focus on God and pleasing him (Lev 16:29; see Zech 7:5). However, these people were only interested in pleasing themselves and continuing in their sins.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.