What Does It Mean to Loose the Chains of Injustice
Poetry-by-Poetry Bible Commentary
"Is this non the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go gratis And interruption every yoke?
New American Standard Version
Clarke'due south Commentary
Poesy Isaiah 58:6. Let the oppressed go gratis — How tin can whatever nation pretend to fast or worship God at all, or dare to profess that they believe in the being of such a Being, while they carry on the slave merchandise, and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies, of men! O ye virtually flagitious of knaves, and worst of hypocrites, bandage off at in one case the mask of organized religion; and deepen not your endless perdition past professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while ye continue in this traffic!
Bibliographical Information
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Isaiah 58:six". "The Adam Clarke Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/isaiah-58.html. 1832.
Bridgeway Bible Commentary
True religion (58:1-14)
The Jews idea they were a righteous people considering they carried out the daily rituals required by the law. The prophet is nigh to bear witness them that in spite of all this they are still sinners. In fact, their attitude towards these rituals is their chief sin (58:ane-ii).
For example, many exercise fasting not considering they are truly humble before God, but because they hope God will be impressed with their actions. Just at the same fourth dimension as they fast, they oppress their workers and fight with ane some other. They deed and wearing apparel in a mode that shows they are fasting, but such fasting is worthless in God's sight (iii-five). God would rather that they cease oppressing others and brainstorm to help the poor and needy (6-7). Only then will he exist pleased with them; merely and then will he accept their worship and answer their prayers (viii-9a).
When the people stop treating others with contempt, God volition show kindness to them. When they sacrifice their condolement for the sake of those who are sick-treated and hungry, God will bless them. He volition give them fresh spiritual life and restore their country to the force of former days (9b-12). Religious observances are important, but people must deport them out from correct motives. Whether practising fasting or keeping the sabbath traditions, the important thing is to honour God, not to seek personal benefit (13-xiv).
Bibliographical Information
Flemming, Donald C. "Commentary on Isaiah 58:six". "Fleming's Bridgeway Bible Commentary". https://world wide web.studylight.org/commentaries/bbc/isaiah-58.html. 2005.
Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? - Fasting is right and proper; just that which God approves will prompt to, and volition be followed past, deeds of justice, kindness, charity. The prophet proceeds to specify very peculiarly what God required, and when the observance of seasons of fasting would be acceptable to him.
To loose the bands of wickedness - This is the first matter to be done in order that their fasting might exist adequate to the Lord. The thought is, that they were to deliquesce every tie which unjustly spring their fellowmen. The Chaldee renders information technology, 'Separate the congregation of impiety;' but the more probable sense is, that if they were exercising any unjust and savage authority over others; if they had leap them in any way reverse to the laws of God and the interests of justice, they were to release them. This might refer to their compelling others to servitude more rigidly than the law of Moses allowed; or to property them to contracts which had been fraudulently fabricated; or to their exacting strict payment from persons wholly incapacitated to see their obligations; or it might refer to their subjecting others to more rigid service than was allowed by the laws of Moses, but it would non require a very agog imagination for anyone to see, that if he held slaves at all, that this came fairly nether the description of the prophet. A man with a tender conscience who held slaves would have been likely to suppose that this role of the injunction applied to himself.
To undo the heavy burdens - Margin, 'Bundles of the yoke.' The Septuagint renders it, 'Dissolve the obligations of onerous contracts.' The Chaldee, 'Loose the obligations of the writings of unjust judgment.' The Hebrew means, 'Loose the bands of the yoke,' a figure taken from the yoke which was borne past oxen, and which seems to have been attached to the neck by cords or bands (see Fragments to Taylor'south Calmer. No. xxviii.) The yoke, in the Scripture, is usually regarded equally an emblem of oppression, or compulsory toil, and is undoubtedy then used here. The same word is used to denote 'burden' ( מוטה môṭâh), which in the subsequent fellow member is rendered 'yoke,' and the word which is rendered 'undo ( התר hatı̂r from נתי nātar), is elsewhere employed to denote emancipation from servitude. The phrase here employed would properly denote the release of captives or slaves, and would doubtless be then understood by those whom the prophet addressed. Thus, in Psalms 105:17-xx :
He sent a homo before them, fifty-fifty Joseph,
Who was sold for a servant;
Whose feet they hurt with fetters;
He was laid in fe:
Until the time when his word came,
The word of the Lord tried him.
The male monarch sent and loosed him ( ויתירהוּ vaytı̂yrēhû),
Even the ruler of the people, and let him get gratis.
And let the oppressed go gratis - Margin, 'Broken.' The Hebrew word רצוצים r e tsûtsı̂ym is from the word רצץ rātsats, meaning "to intermission, to break downward" (encounter the notes at Isaiah 42:iii); to treat with violence, to oppress. Information technology may be practical to those who are treated with violence in whatever way, or who are broken downward by bard usage. It may refer, therefore, to slaves who are oppressed by chains and toil; or to inferiors of whatsoever kind who are subjected to difficult usage by those who are above them; or to the subjects of a tyrant groaning nether his yoke. The use of the phrase here, 'get free,' however, seems to limit its application in this place to those who were held in chains. Jerome renders information technology, 'Free those who are broken' (confracti). The Septuagint Τεθρασμένος Tethrasmenos - 'Set at liberty those who are broken down.' If slavery existed at the fourth dimension here referred to, this discussion would be appropriately understood as including that - at least would be so understood by the slaves themselves - for if any institution deserves to be called oppression, it is theft of slavery.
This interpretation would be confirmed by the use of the discussion rendered free. That give-and-take ( חפשׁים chophshı̂ym) evidently refers to the act of freeing a slave. The person who had once been a slave, and who had afterward obtained his liberty, was denominated חפשׁי chophshı̂y (see Jahn, Bib. Pismire. Section 171). This word occurs, and is so used, in the following places; Exodus 21:12, 'And the seventh (twelvemonth) he shall go costless;' Exodus 21:5, 'I will not go out complimentary;' Exodus 26:27, 'He shall let him become complimentary;' Deuteronomy 15:12, 'Thou shalt let him go free;' Deuteronomy fifteen:13, 'When thou sendest him out free' Deuteronomy 15:18, 'When k sendest him away gratuitous;' Job 3:nineteen, 'The servant is complimentary from his master;' that is, in the grave, where in that location is universal emancipation. Compare Jeremiah 34:9-11, Jeremiah 34:14, Jeremiah 34:xvi where the same Hebrew word is used, and is applied expressly to the emancipation of slaves. The word is used in other places in the Bible except the post-obit: 1 Samuel 17:25, 'And brand his father's business firm gratis in Israel,' referring to the favor which was promised to the ane who would slay Goliath of Gath. Task 39:5 : 'Who hath sent out the wild donkey gratis?' Psalms 88:five : 'Free amidst the dead.' The usage, therefore, is settled that the give-and-take properly refers to deliverance from servitude. It would exist naturally understood by a Hebrew as referring to that, and unless there was something in the connection which made it necessary to adopt a different interpretation, a Hebrew would so understand it of course. In the case earlier us, such an interpretation would exist obvious, and it is difficult to run into how a Jew could understand this direction in whatever other way, if he was an owner. of slaves, than that be should gear up them at once at liberty.
And that ye suspension every yoke - A yoke, in the Scriptures, is a symbol of oppression, and the thought here is, that they were to stop all oppressions, and to restore all to their lust and equal rights. The prophet demanded, in order that at that place might exist an acceptable 'fast,' that everything which could properly be described as a 'yoke' should be broken. How could this command be complied with by a Hebrew if he connected to retain his boyfriend-men in bondage? Would not its fair application exist to lead him to emancipate those who were held as slaves? Could information technology be true, whatsoever else he might do, that he would fully comply with this injunction, unless this were washed? If at present this whole injunction were fairly complied with in his land, who can uncertainty that it would lead to the emancipation of the slaves? The language is such that it cannot well be misunderstood. The prophet undoubtedly specifies those things which properly denote slavery, and demands that they should all be abased in social club to an adequate 'fast to the Lord,' and the off-white application of this injunction would soon extinguish slavery throughout the earth.
Bibliographical Information
Barnes, Albert. "Commentary on Isaiah 58:6". "Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/isaiah-58.html. 1870.
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
6. Is non this the fast which I have chosen? The Prophet shows what are the real duties of piety, and what God chiefly recommends to us; namely, to relieve those who are wretched and pressed with a heavy burden. Only the Prophet appears to abolish fasting universally, when, in place of it, he enumerates those works which are nearly highly acceptable to God. I reply, fasting is canonical when it is accompanied past that love which we owe to our boyfriendmen; and therefore the Prophet directs that we shall be tried by this principle, that our consciences be unabridged and pure, that nosotros exercise common kindness towards each other; for if this order prevail, then fasting, which shall be added to it, will be pleasing and acceptable to God. But here he does non at all mention purity of eye. I reply, information technology is described by works, as by its fruits, from which it is hands seen what kind of center nosotros have. Side by side, he enumerates the duties of the Second Table, under which, every bit we have elsewhere seen, by a figure of spoken communication in which a part is taken for the whole, he includes the whole observation of the Law; for it would not exist enough to assist our neighbor by kind offices, if at the aforementioned time we despised God. Only we must discover the Prophet's pattern; because the love which we owe to our neighbors cannot be sincerely cultivated, unless when nosotros beloved them in God. In order to make trial of our fear of God, he demands these equally more immediate signs, if we live justly, inoffensively, and kindly with each other. Likewise, he was non satisfied with outward appearance; and indeed the beloved of our neighbor does not thrive where the Spirit of God does not reign; and therefore Paul includes it in the enumeration of "the works of the Spirit." (Galatians v:22) Thus when the observation of the Police is spoken of, non only outward works, but also the dispositions of the middle, must be taken into the business relationship.
To loose wicked bindings. Some explain information technology to mean "sinful thoughts," by which the hearts of men are entangled. Just Isaiah appears to me to accept had another object in view, namely, that hypocrites are exceedingly cruel in sorry the poor, and lay heavy burdens upon them. He therefore calls them "bonds," or "bindings," or, as we commonly say, "oppressions." Of the same import is what he adds, to undo the heavy burdens, under the weight of which the poor groan and are overwhelmed. he again adds, "to permit the oppressed become free," and expresses the same thing in a multifariousness of words. Thus the Prophet does not define what is meant by "fasting," but shows what the Lord requires in the first place and chiefly, and in what fashion our obedience can exist canonical by him, and what ought to be the dispositions of those who endeavor to fast in a right manner. Bibliographical Information
Calvin, John. "Commentary on Isaiah 58:6". "Calvin's Commentary on the Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cal/isaiah-58.html. 1840-57.
Smith's Bible Commentary
Chapter 58
Cry aloud, spare not ( Isaiah 58:1 ),
The Lord is commanding now the prophet Isaiah.
elevator up thy vocalism like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the firm of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily ( Isaiah 58:1-two ),
Now there was a real inconsistency here, because the omnipresence at the temple worship had not diminished at all. People were all the same going through outward forms of faith. There was a popular religious motility on the surface, but the heart of the people was still alienated from God. So there was a combination. They would get to temple and worship God. And withal they were yet worshipping their ain niggling idols and still following afterward their own flesh. And such was the dichotomy that existed so and such is the dichotomy today. There are people who however on the surface acknowledge God. And it's a surface experience, only information technology hasn't really affected downwardly in their hearts and down in their lives, their way of living. And God was interested in the heart. Now you lot recall when Jeremiah who prophesied shortly afterwards Isaiah, and during the time of Jeremiah'south prophecy, and we'll be getting into that a couple of weeks at present, during the time of Jeremiah's prophecy when Josiah became the rex. He was a good king and there was a popular religious movement under Josiah. You might say a revival. Everybody was going dorsum to temple. And and then the Lord said to Jeremiah, this immature boy, "Now you lot go down to the temple and cry unto the people every bit they're going into the temple, saying, 'Trust not in lying vanities saying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these."'" In other words, God again was crying out confronting the fact that information technology was merely a surface motion. Information technology wasn't down deep in the hearts of the people a move towards Him. So here God is telling the prophet, "Cry out. Permit your voice be similar a trumpet. Show My people their transgressions for they seek Me daily."
they delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook non the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; and they accept delight in budgeted God ( Isaiah 58:ii ).
They had a peachy form of religion. Going to hear, inquiring, "What does God say?" And and then they were lament. They were even fasting, but they were proverb to God,
How is information technology that we take fasted, and y'all do non see it? nosotros have afflicted our soul, and you haven't taken any acknowledgment of it? ( Isaiah 58:3 )
Only the Lord answers them.
Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasance, and yous exact all your labors. Behold, y'all fast for strife and for contend, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this solar day, to make your vocalism to be heard on high ( Isaiah 58:3-4 ).
You're not really fasting to seek God but to prove a point.
Is information technology such a fast that I take chosen? a day for a human to afflict his soul? is information technology to bow down his caput as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will yous telephone call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? ( Isaiah 58:five )
Do you think that I desire an outward kind of a matter from you? At present Jesus said when yous fast, don't exist like the hypocrites who like to brand a big, open kind of a brandish of their fasting. They get a very mournful face and they don't anoint themselves and all. And they look very gaunt and sorry. Yous say, "Oh, what's the matter, brother?" "Oh, I'm fasting today, blood brother, you lot know." "And oh my, isn't he spiritual?" And the Lord says, "Hey, don't do it that way. That'south non... I don't want an outward fasting kind of a thing. If you're going to fast, let it be something really of your heart and seeking later on Me. Don't let information technology exist to testify a bespeak. Don't let it be to gain an reward." How many times people are trying to fast just to gain some kind of an advantage with God. Force God to reply my prayer because I'm fasting. If I'yard going to afflict my soul and going to fast, let me do information technology out of a pure motive of but wanting God and more than of God in my life. And practice it unto God, not in a big display or evidence. But God said,
This is the fast that I take chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to permit the oppressed go free, and that y'all break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy breadstuff to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to thy business firm? when you run into the naked, that y'all would comprehend him; and that thou hide not yourself from your own flesh? Then shall thy light pause along as the morning ( Isaiah 58:6-8 ),
When you really are fasting correct, doing what God wants, fasting and doing, God wants yous to gear up gratuitous those that are oppressed. To feed those that are hungry. To clothe those that are poor. Have of your substance and really requite information technology to someone else. "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning."
and thine health shall leap forth quickly: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall [come up backside y'all] be your rearward. Then shalt yard call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt weep, and he shall say, Hither I am. If grand accept away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting along of the finger, and speaking vanity ( Isaiah 58:8-ix );
So in that location is a fast that God will honor. And God will exist with you. He'll get before you lot and backside you lot. He'll answer you when you call. They were fasting, merely information technology was just a formality. And then they were saying, "Well, why doesn't God respond?" And then God answers why He was not responding.
And if yard draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy calorie-free ascension in obscurity, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a leap of water, whose waters fail not ( Isaiah 58:10-eleven ).
So the prosperity, the approving, the glory if you draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul.
And they that shall exist of thee shall build the old waste places: k shalt raise up the old foundations of many generations; and grand shalt exist called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If 1000 plough away thy human foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and telephone call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and yard shalt laurels him, non doing thine own ways, nor finding your own pleasance, nor speaking your ain words: And so shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and to feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it ( Isaiah 58:12-14 ).
So the right way to fast; the wrong way to fast. The correct purposes and the incorrect purposes. And also it does also follow in the keeping of the sabbath day, the right and the wrong style. "
Bibliographical Information
Smith, Charles Ward. "Commentary on Isaiah 58:half-dozen". "Smith'southward Bible Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/csc/isaiah-58.html. 2014.
Dr. Constable's Expository Notes
The type of fasting that pleases God is: giving up wickedness, oppression, enslavement, and binding of other people-not just food. Isaiah did not hateful, of class, that God had no concern about His people going without food (cf. Leviticus 16:31). The prophet was going to the opposite farthermost to make a indicate (cf. Isaiah 1:10-20; Amos 5:25-27; Micah 6:6-8; Luke fourteen:26).
"If they desire to deprive themselves, let them practise it for the sake of the oppressed, the needy, and the helpless, not for the sake of their ain religiosity. God's nature is to give himself away to those who tin can never repay him. There is no clearer testify of the presence of God in a person'southward life than a replication of that same behavior." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 503.]
God wants people to be gratis. That is why He sent the Servant, and that is why He liberated the Israelites from Egypt and Babylon. He wants His people to set up others free, as well.
"To loose the chains of injustice/'fetters of wickedness' points to the need to labour for the abolitionism of every way in which wrong social structures, or wrongdoers in society, destroy or diminish the due liberty of others. To untie the cords of the yoke refers to the need to eliminate every way in which people are treated like animals." [Notation: Motyer, p. 481.]
Bibliographical Information
Constable, Thomas. DD. "Commentary on Isaiah 58:6". "Dr. Constable'southward Expository Notes". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/dcc/isaiah-58.html. 2012.
Dr. Constable's Expository Notes
True worship 58:6-14
Isaiah contrasted God'due south formulation of fasting with that of His people (cf. Matthew six:16-18).
Bibliographical Information
Constable, Thomas. DD. "Commentary on Isaiah 58:6". "Dr. Constable'due south Expository Notes". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/dcc/isaiah-58.html. 2012.
Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
Is not this the fast that I have chosen?.... Which God has appointed, he approves of, and is well pleasing in his sight; these are works and services more agreeable to him, which follow, without which the rest will be rejected:
to loose the bands of wickedness; which some understand of combinations in courts of judicature to oppress and distress the poor; others of bonds and contracts unjustly made, or rigorously demanded and insisted on, when they cannot be answered; rather of those things with which the consciences of men are bound in religious matters; impositions upon conscience; binding to the use of stinted forms, and to habits in divine worship, which the word of God has not fabricated necessary:
to disengage the heavy burdens. The Septuagint render it, "dissolve the obligations of violent contracts"; such as are obtained by violence; so the Arabic version; or by fraud, as the Syriac version, which translates it, bonds of fraud. The Targum is,
"loose the bonds of writings of a depraved judgment;''
all referring information technology to unjust bonds and contracts in a civil sense: but rather it regards the loosing or freeing men from all obligation to all human being prescriptions and precepts; any is after the tradition of men, later the rudiments of the world, and non after Christ; so the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees are called "heavy burdens, grievous to be borne", Matthew 23:iv these should non exist laid and bound on men'due south shoulders, simply should be done and taken off of them, too as all penal laws with which they take been enforced:
and to let the oppressed go gratuitous; such as accept been cleaved by oppression, not only in their spirits, but in their purses, by mulcts and fines, and confiscation of goods; and who have been cast into prisons, and detained a long time in filthy dungeons; and where many have perished for the sake of religion, fifty-fifty in Protestant countries:
and that ye break every yoke; of church power and tyranny; everything that is not enjoined and authorized past the word of God; every yoke but the yoke of Christ; all human being precepts, and obedience to them; all but the commands of Christ, and obedience to them; no other yoke should exist put upon the neck of his disciples but his own.
Copyright Statement
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Bibliographical Information
Gill, John. "Commentary on Isaiah 58:six". "Gill'southward Exposition of the Entire Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/isaiah-58.html. 1999.
Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible
| A Charge against the People. | B. C. 706. |
iii Wherefore take we fasted, say they, and g seest non? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and 1000 takest no knowledge? Behold, in the solar 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 non fast equally ye do this day, to brand 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 caput as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt grand call this a fast, and an acceptable twenty-four hour period to the LORD? 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to disengage the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye intermission every yoke? seven Is it not to bargain thy bread to the hungry, and that yard bring the poor that are cast out to thy firm? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that 1000 hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Here we have, I. The displeasure which these hypocrites conceived against God for non accepting the services which they themselves had a mighty opinion of (Isaiah 58:3; Isaiah 58:iii): Wherefore accept nosotros fasted, say they, and k 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 accustomed. Having gone nearly to put a cheat upon God by their external services, here they go about to selection a quarrel with God for not existence pleased with their services, every bit if he had not washed fairly or justly by them. Observe, ane. How they avowal of themselves, and magnify their ain performances: "We have fasted, and affected our souls; we have not only sought God daily (Isaiah 58:2; Isaiah 58:2), but accept kept some sure times of more solemn devotion." Some recall this refers to the yearly fast (which was chosen the day of atonement), others to their arbitrary occasional fasts. Annotation, It is common for unhumbled hearts to be proud of their professions of humiliation, every bit the Pharisee (Luke 18:12), I fast twice in the week. ii. What they expected from their performances. They thought God should have great observe 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 class, or for a compliment. 3. How heinously they take information technology 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 upward their faith, and justify themselves in doing and then with this, that they had constitute no profit in praying to God, Chore 21:14; Chore 21:15; Malachi iii:xiv. Notation, 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 arraign of. Sinners reflect upon faith every bit a hard and melancholy service, and on which there is nothing to be got past, when actually information technology is owing to themselves that it seems so to them, because they are not sincere in it. II. The truthful reason assigned why God did not accept their fastings, nor answer the prayers they made on their fast-days; it was considering they did not fast aright--to God, even to him, Zechariah vii: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 twenty-four hours of their fast, all the same the professed humiliations and covenants of that day, they went on to find pleasure, that is, to exercise whatsoever seemed correct in their own eyes, lawful or unlawful, quicquid libet, licet--making their inclinations their police force; though they seemed to afflict their souls, they still gratified their lusts as much every bit ever. 1. They were equally covetous and unmerciful as ever: "Y'all exact all your labours from your servants, and volition neither release them according to the law nor relax the rigour of their servitude." This was their error before the captivity, Jeremiah 34:8; Jeremiah 34:9. Information technology was no less their fault after their captivity, nevertheless all their solemn fasts, Nehemiah 5:5. "You exact all your ante, your debts" (so some read it); "you lot are as rigorous and severe in extorting what yous demand from those that are poor equally ever you were, though it was at the close of the yearly fast that the release was proclaimed." 2. They were contentious and spiteful (Isaiah 58:4; Isaiah 58:4): Behold, you lot fast for strife and contend. When they proclaimed a fast to deprecate God'southward 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, equally Naboth in the day of Jezebel's fast, 1 Kings 21:12. Or the contending parties among them upon those occasions were bitter and severe in their reflections ane upon another, one side crying out, "Information technology is owing to yous," and the other, "It is owing to you lot, that our deliverance is not wrought." Thus, instead of judging themselves, which is the proper piece of work of a fast-mean solar day, they condemned one some other. They fasted for strife, with emulation which should make the most plausible appearance on a fast-day and humor the matter best. Nor was information technology only natural language-quarrels that were fomented in the times of their fasting, but they came to blows too: You lot smite with the fist of wickedness. The vicious job-masters shell 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 straight contrary to the intention of a fasting day, (1.) God would not allow them the use of such solemnities: "Y'all shall not fast at all if y'all fast as you do this mean solar day, causing your vocalization to be heard on loftier, in the heat of your clamours 1 confronting another, or in your devotions, which you lot perform so as to make them to be taken notice of for ostentation. Bring me no more of these empty, noisy, vain oblations," Isaiah 1:13; Isaiah 1:xiii. Notation, Those are justly forbidden the honor of a profession of religion that will not submit to the ability of it. (2.) He would not accept of them in the use of them: "You shall not fast, that is, it shall non exist looked upon every bit a fast, nor shall the vocalisation of your prayers on those days exist heard on high in heaven." Notation, Those that fast and pray, and yet continue in their wicked ways, practice but mock God and deceive themselves. Iii. Plain instructions given concerning the true nature of a religious fast. 1. In full general, a fast is intended, (i.) For the honouring and pleasing of God. Information technology must be such a performance every bit he has chosen (Isaiah 58:five; Isaiah 58:v); it must be an acceptable day to the Lord, in the duties of which we must written report to approve ourselves to him and obtain his favour, else information technology is not a fast, else there is nothing done to whatever purpose. (2.) For the humbling and abasing of ourselves. A fast is a 24-hour interval to agonize the soul; if it do not express a genuine sorrow for sin, and do not promote a real mortification of sin, information technology is not a fast; the law of the day of atonement was that on that 24-hour interval they should afflict their souls, Leviticus xvi:29. That must be done on a fast-day which is a real affliction to the soul, as far as it is even so unregenerate and unsanctified, though a real pleasure and advantage to the soul as far as information technology is itself. 2. It concerns us therefore to enquire, on a fast-solar day, what information technology is that volition exist acceptable to God, and afflictive to our corrupt nature, and disposed to its mortification. (one.) We are hither told negatively what is non the fast that God has called, and which does not corporeality to the afflicting of the soul. [i.] It is not enough to expect demure, to put on a grave and melancholy attribute, to bow down the head similar a bulrush that is withered and broken: as the hypocrites, that were of a sorry countenance, and disfigured their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast, Matthew half dozen:16. Hanging downward the caput did indeed well enough get the publican, whose heart was truly humbled and broken for sin, and who therefore, in token of that, would not and then much as elevator upwardly his eyes to heaven (Luke 18:13); only when it was only mimicked, as here, it was justly ridiculed: information technology is just hanging down the head like a bulrush, which nobody regards or takes any discover 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 (Task 8:11; Job 8:12), which, while it is yet in its greenness, withers before any other herb. [2.] It is not enough to practice penance, to mortify the body a little, while the body of sin is untouched. It is not enough for a human to spread sackcloth and ashes under him, which may indeed requite him some uneasiness for the nowadays, but will before long be forgotten when he returns to stretch himself upon his beds of ivory, Amos 6:four. Wilt thou call this a fast? No, it is but the shadow and carcase of a fast. Wilt thousand call this an acceptable 24-hour interval to the Lord? No, it is so far from beingness and so that the hypocrisy of information technology is an anathema to him. Annotation, The shows of religion, though they show e'er so fair in the heart of the world, will not exist 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-mean solar 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 24-hour interval (as some read it, Isaiah 58:five; Isaiah 58:five) that will serve; no, it must be the concern of our whole lives. It is here required, [ane.] That we exist simply to those with whom nosotros have dealt hardly. The fast that God has called consists in reforming our lives and undoing what we accept washed amiss (Isaiah 58:6; Isaiah 58:half dozen): To loose the bands of wickedness, the bands which nosotros have wickedly tied, and past which others are jump out from their right or bound down nether severe usage. Those which perchance 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 united states 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 gear up to sink. Information technology is to let the oppressed go free from the oppression which makes his life bitter to him. "Permit the prisoner for debt that has cipher to pay be discharged, let the vexatious activeness be quashed, allow the servant that is forcibly detained beyond the time of his servitude be released, and thus break every yoke; not only permit become those that are wrongfully kept under the yoke, just pause the yoke of slavery itself, that it may not serve again another time nor whatsoever by made again to serve under information technology." [2.] That we be charitable to those that stand in need of charity, Isaiah 58:vii; Isaiah 58:seven. The particulars in the Isaiah 58:6 may exist taken as acts of charity, that we not but release those whom we have unjustly oppressed--that is justice, simply 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 poetry are manifestly acts of charity. This then is the fast that God has chosen. Commencement, To provide nutrient for those that desire information technology. This is put first, as the most necessary, and which the poor can but a little while alive without. It is to interruption thy staff of life to the hungry. Notice, "It must be thy staff of life, that which is honestly got (not that which chiliad hast robbed others of), the bread which thou thyself hast occasion for, the breadstuff of thy allowance." We must deny ourselves, that we may take to give to him that needeth. "Thy bread which thousand hast spared from thyself and thy family, on the fast-mean solar day, if that, or the value of it, exist not given to the poor, it is the miser'southward fast, which he makes a hand of; information technology is fasting for the world, non for God. This is the true fast, to break thy bread to the hungry, non merely to give them that which is already cleaved meat, but to intermission breadstuff on purpose for them, to give them loaves and not to put them off with scraps." Secondly, To provide lodging for those that desire it: Information technology is to take care of the poor that are bandage out, that are forced from their dwelling, turned out of business firm and harbour, are cast out as rebels (and then some critics render it), that are attainted, and whom therefore it is highly penal to protect. "If they endure unjustly, make no difficulty of sheltering them; do not merely detect out quarters for them and pay for their lodging elsewhere, only, which is a greater deed of kindness, bring them to thy ain house, make them thy own guests. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for though m mayest not, as some have washed, thereby entertain angels, g mayest entertain Christ himself, who will recompense it in the resurrection of the just. I was a stranger and yous took me in." Thirdly, To provide wear for those that want it: "When 1000 seest the naked, that thou cover him, both to shelter him from the injuries of the weather and to enable him to announced decently amid his neighbours; give him clothes to come to church in, and in these and other instances hide not thyself from thy ain mankind." Some understand it more strictly of a human's own kindred and relations: "If those of thy ain house and family unit fall into disuse, thou art worse than an infidel if thou dost not provide for them." one Timothy 5:8. Others understand it more generally; all that partake of the human being nature are to be looked upon equally our ain flesh, for have we not all one Father? And for this reason we must non hide ourselves from them, not contrive to be out of the manner when a poor petitioner enquires for u.s., not look another way when a moving object of charity and compassion presents itself; allow 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 benefit to our own flesh and spirit too in the issue; for thus we lay up for ourselves a good foundation, a adept bond, for the time to come. Copyright Argument Bibliographical Information
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that is available on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library Website.
Henry, Matthew. "Complete Commentary on Isaiah 58:vi". "Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mhm/isaiah-58.html. 1706.
Lectionary Calendar Thursday, April 7th, 2022 There are 10 days til Easter!
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