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Scripture · Old Testament

Isaiah 58:3

Isaiah 58:3 is verse 3 of Isaiah chapter 58, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.

Berean Standard Bible

“Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers.

BSB source and public domain terms

King James Version

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.

World English Bible

‘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.

Read in context

Isaiah 58:1–5 · Berean Standard Bible

1 “Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”

3 “Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers.

4 You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.

5 Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?

Read all of Isaiah 58

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Study Isaiah 58:3

Read the commentary on Isaiah 58

Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Numbers 23:4

and God met with him. “I have set up seven altars,” Balaam said, “and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”

Micah 3:9

Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert all that is right,

Micah 3:10

who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.

Micah 3:11

Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

Zechariah 7:5

“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?

Zechariah 7:6

And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?

Zechariah 7:7

Are these not the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’”

Malachi 3:14

You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?

Matthew 20:11

On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner.

Matthew 20:12

‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’

Luke 15:29

But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

Luke 18:9

To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:

Luke 18:10

“Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

Luke 18:11

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

Luke 18:12

I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’

Leviticus 16:29

This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselves and not do any work—whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you—

Leviticus 16:31

It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, that you may humble yourselves; it is a permanent statute.

Leviticus 23:27

“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You shall hold a sacred assembly and humble yourselves, and present an offering made by fire to the LORD.

Psalms 69:10

I wept and fasted, but it brought me reproach.

Daniel 10:2

In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks.

Daniel 10:3

I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.

Jonah 3:6

When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Jonah 3:7

Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.

Jonah 3:8

Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.

Nehemiah 5:7

and after serious thought I rebuked the nobles and officials, saying, “You are exacting usury from your own brothers!” So I called a large assembly against them

Proverbs 28:9

Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.

Jeremiah 34:9

that each man should free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and no one should hold his fellow Jew in bondage.

Jeremiah 34:10

So all the officials and all the people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their menservants and maidservants and no longer hold them in bondage. They obeyed and released them,

Jeremiah 34:11

but later they changed their minds and took back the menservants and maidservants they had freed, and they forced them to become slaves again.

Jeremiah 34:12

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Jeremiah 34:13

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying:

Jeremiah 34:14

Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear.

Jeremiah 34:15

Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.

Jeremiah 34:16

But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.

Jeremiah 34:17

Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the LORD—freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Matthew 18:28

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’

Matthew 18:29

So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you back.’

Matthew 18:30

But he refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt.

Matthew 18:31

When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and recounted all of this to their master.

Matthew 18:32

Then the master summoned him and declared, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me.

Matthew 18:33

Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’

Matthew 18:34

In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.

Matthew 18:35

That is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Isaiah 47:6

I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke.

Exodus 2:23

After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.

Exodus 2:24

So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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