| A | B |
|---|
| Shout it aloud do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet | all |
| Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins | all |
| For day after day they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways. | all |
| as if they were a nation that does what is right. and has not forsaken the commands of its God | alk |
| They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. | all |
| Why have we fasted they say and you have not seen it? | all |
| Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed | all |
| Yet on the day of your fasting you do as you please, and exploit all your workers | all |
| Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. | all |
| You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. | all |
| Is this the kind of fast I have chosen only a day for people to humble themselves? | all |
| Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? | all |
| Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? | all |
| Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen, to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke | a |
| to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? | a |
| Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- | a |
| when you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? | a |
| Then your light will bbreak forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear, | a |
| then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. | a |
| Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, Here am I | a |
| If you do away with the yoke of opp;ression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk. | a |
