Isaiah 58

Isaiah 58 belongs to chapters 56–66, the final section of Isaiah. The preceding chapter, Isaiah 57, rebukes idolatry and comforts the contrite. This chapter goes on to condemn merely formal fasting and to set forth the nature of true piety.

Outline

• Verses 1–2 God commands the prophet to lift up his voice like a trumpet and declare the people's sins. Outwardly, the people appear to seek God daily and to delight in drawing near to Him.
• Verses 3–5 The people complain that although they fast, God takes no notice. God rebukes them because even on their fast days they pursue their own pleasure, exact all their labors, quarrel, and strike with the fist. He also declares that merely bowing the head and spreading sackcloth and ashes does not make a fast.
• Verses 6–7 The fast that God delights in is described: to loose the bands of wickedness, to let the oppressed go free, to share bread with the hungry, to bring the poor that are cast out into one's house, and to clothe the naked.
• Verses 8–12 God promises that those who do so will see their light break forth as the morning, will be answered when they cry, will be like a watered garden, and will be called the repairer of the breach.
• Verses 13–14 God urges the people to turn from their own pleasure on the Sabbath and to call that day a delight and honorable. Then they will delight themselves in the LORD, and He will feed them with the heritage of Jacob their father.

Key Verses

• Isaiah 58:6 "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness…" — The central verse of the chapter, which interprets the true meaning of fasting as justice toward one's neighbor.
• Isaiah 58:11 "Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not" — A vivid picture of the promise of restoration given to the obedient.
• Isaiah 58:13 "Call the sabbath a delight" — Frequently cited as a representative verse on Sabbath observance.

People and Places

• The LORD The speaker throughout the chapter.
• Jacob The expressions "the house of Jacob" and "Jacob thy father" refer to the people of Israel as a whole.

Points for Reflection

• Critical scholarship tends to regard chapters 56–66 as material written after the return from exile (commonly called "Third Isaiah" or "Trito-Isaiah"). The conservative tradition reads the entire book as the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah.
• The chapter does not reject fasting itself. What it challenges is piety divorced from love of neighbor. The expression "afflict the soul" also echoes the regulations for the Day of Atonement ("ye shall afflict your souls," Leviticus 16:29).
• The Sabbath of verse 13 is applied differently by different denominations. The Seventh-day Adventist Church reads this verse as a basis for observing the Sabbath on Saturday. Most Protestant churches apply it as a principle for keeping the Lord's Day (see Sabbath and Lord's Day).
• In Luke 4, Jesus reads from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth. Within that quotation, the phrase "to set at liberty them that are bruised" is generally understood to come from the Septuagint text of Isaiah 58:6. In addition, the picture of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked is often read alongside the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:35–36).

In the Korean Church

The chapter is commonly used as a sermon text on the theme of "the fast that pleases God" when teaching on prayer with fasting or encouraging self-denial during Lent. Verses 6–7 are frequently cited to emphasize almsgiving and service to one's neighbors. Verse 13 is frequently cited when exhorting believers to keep the Lord's Day holy.