1 Cry aloud, do not hold back; lift up thy voice like a shofar and preach to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sin.
2 That they seek me daily and want to know my ways, as people that do righteousness and have not forsaken the rights of their God: they ask me of the rights of righteousness and desire to approach God.
3 Why have we fasted, they say, and thou dost not see? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou dost take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure and exact your own estates.
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?