Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 58:3
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 labors.
3. The first half of the verse expresses the people’s sense of disappointment at the failure of their efforts to win the favour of Jehovah; the second half begins the prophet’s exposure of their hypocrisy. There is an incipient Pharisaism in their evident expectation that by external works of righteousness they would hasten the coming of the Messianic salvation. The prophet also maintains that salvation is conditioned by righteousness on the part of the people; but he insists that the righteousness which secures the fulfilment of the promises is ethical righteousness, not the mechanical observance of ceremonial forms.
have we afflicted our soul ] see below on Isa 58:5.
you find pleasure ] Rather business (see on ch. Isa 44:28), i.e. “you find opportunity to do a profitable stroke of business.” Cf. Isa 58:13.
and exact all your labours ] Or, as R.V. marg., and oppress all your labourers. According to the law of Lev 16:29 a fast implied universal cessation of work, but these men while fasting themselves, extorted from their slaves and hired servants their full tale of work. On slavery in the post-exilic community see Neh 5:5. The translation “labourers” is somewhat uncertain; the word does not occur elsewhere in this sense.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherefore have we fasted – They had fasted much, evidently with the expectation of delivering themselves from impending calamities, and securing the divine favor. They are here introduced as saying that they had been disappointed. God had not interposed as they had expected. Chagrined and mortified, they now complain that he had not noticed their very conscientious and faithful regard for the duties of religion.
And thou seest not? – All had been in vain. Calamities still impended; judgments threatened; and there were no tokens of the divine approbation. Hypocrites depend on their fastings and prayers as laying God under obligation to save them. If he does not interpose, they complain and murmur. When fasting is the result of a humble and broken heart, it is acceptable; when it is instituted as a means of purchasing the divine favor, and as laying God under obligation, it can be followed by no happy result to the soul.
Have we afflicted our soul – By fasting. Twenty-one manuscripts (six ancient), says Lowth, have this in the plural number – our souls and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and the Vulgate. The sense is not materially affected, however. It is evident here that they regarded their numerous fastings as laying the foundation of a claim on the favor of God, and that they were disposed to complain when that claim was not acknowledged. Fasting, like other religious duties, is proper; but in that, as in all other services of religion, there is danger of supposing that we bring God under obligations, and that we are laying the foundation of a claim to his favor.
Thou takest no knowledge – Thou dost not regard our numerous acts of self-denial.
Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure – The prophet here proceeds to state the reasons why their fastings were not succeeded as they supposed they would be, by the divine favor. The first reason which he states is, that even when they were fasting, they were giving full indulgence to their depraved appetites and lusts. The Syriac has well rendered this, In the day of your fasting you indulge your lusts, and draw near to all your idols. This also was evidently the case with the Jews in the time of the Saviour. They were Characterized repeatedly by him as an evil and adulterous generation, and yet no generation perhaps was ever more punctual and strict in the external duties of fasting and other religious ceremonies.
And exact all your labors – This is the second reason why their fasting was attended with no more happy results. The margin renders this griefs, or things wherewith ye grieve others. Lowth renders it, All your demands of labor ye rigorously exact. Castellio renders it, And all things which are due to you, you exact. The word rendered here labors denotes usually hard and painful labor; toil, travail, etc. The Septuagint renders it here, And goad ( huponussete) all those who are under your control ( tous hupocheirious humon). The idea seems to be that they were at that time oppressive in exacting all that was due to them; they remitted nothing, they forgave nothing. Alas, how often is this still true! People may be most diligent in the external duties of religion; most abundant in fasting and in prayer, and at the same time most unyielding in demanding all that is due to them. Like Shylock – another Jew like those in the time of Isaiah – they may demand the pound of flesh, at the same time that they may be most formal, punctual, precise, and bigoted in the performance of the external duties of religion. The sentiment taught here is, that if we desire to keep a fast that shall be acceptable to God, it must be such as shall cause us to unbind heavy burdens from the poor, and to lead us to relax the rigor of the claims which would be oppressive on those who are subject to us (see Isa 58:6).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 58:3-7
Wherefore have we fasted?
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Fasts
Fasts were a common feature of the old Israelitish religion (1Ki 21:9; 1Ki 21:12; Jer 36:9). In Zec 8:19 we learn expressly that during the exile four days were observed annually as fasts, in commemoration of dates connected with the fall of Jerusalem. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Fasting
I. CONSIDER IN GENERAL THE DUTY OF FASTING, ITS NATURE, ENDS AND USES. As to the meaning of the word, fasting is only an abstinence from food. Whether this abstinence should be total or partial, and how long it should be continued, cannot be determined by any general rule that can reach all persons; but the constitutions and strength of particular persons must be considered, and such abstinence used by them respectively as will best answer in each the ends and uses of fasting. We are not to look upon fasting in itself as a thing that recommends us to God. But there are good ends for which fasting is appointed, and which are promoted by it, that make it acceptable to God regard, therefore, must ever be had to those ends, and such measures taken as may be most conducive to them, and they are chiefly these–
1. For subduing and mortifying the sinful appetites of the body.
2. For the better disposing the mind to prayer and other spiritual exercises. The corruptible body is too apt to press down the immortal soul.
3. For the testifying our shame and sorrow; our anger at ourselves for our sins. We have Gods express command for it to His people the Jews. The prophet Joel frequently and earnestly presses them to this duty. Holy men of old practised it, as we find in the instances of Ezra, David, Daniel, etc. And that we may not think this to be such a Jewish rite, as concerned only those that lived under their dispensation, we read that when the prophet Jonah denounced Gods judgment against Nineveh, those Gentiles proclaimed a fast, and observed it universally from the greatest to the least. And to put this matter out of all doubt, the blessed Author of our holy roll,on, in His Sermon on the Mount, though He does not directly command fasting yet supposes it a duty to be practised by Christians, gives directions for the right performance of it, and upon such a performance assures us of a blessing from our Father in heaven.
II. REFLECT UPON THOSE FAULTS OF THE JEWS RECORDED IN MY TEXT, WHICH MADE THEIR FASTS UNACCEPTABLE TO GOD.
1. Though they used great outward austerity, and severe discipline towards the body, there was no inward change.
2. Their divisions and contentions. Ye fast for strife and debate, etc.
3. Their want of compassion and charity to those that were in affliction (verse 7). A like thread of hypocrisy ran through their fasts, and prayers, and alms, and all their services in our Saviours time.
III. INQUIRE WHETHER WE OF THIS NATION ARE NOT JUSTLY CHARGEABLE WITH THE SAME SINS WHICH THEY COMMITTED, and so severely smarted for; and whether we have not too much reason to fear that God may expostulate with us about our public fasts, as He did with them, Are they such fasts as I have chosen?
IV. PRESS YOU TO THE PRACTICE OF SUCH THINGS AS MAY MAKE THIS DAY OF HUMILIATION AN ACCEPTABLE DAY UNTO THE LORD. And what can do this but our careful avoiding those sins which the Jews are here reproved for, and practising their contrary duties?
1. We must be sure to avoid that foolish and provoking sin of hypocrisy.
2. Also all strife and division. S. Let us take heed of unmercifulness and hard-heartedness to those that are in want and misery; for, with what face can we ask, with what reason can we expect from God, supplies for our wants, or succour in our distress, if we refuse such help as we can give to our poor brethren in their affliction? (Bp. Talbot.)
Incipient Pharisaism
There is an incipient Pharisaism in their evident expectation that by external works of righteousness they would hasten the coming of the Messianic salvation. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Ye fast for strife
J. D. Michaelis tells a story of a lady who was never known to scold her servants so severely as on fast days, which he says agrees well with physiological principles and facts! (J. A. Alexander.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. Have we adopted our soul – “Have we afflicted our souls”] Twenty-seven MSS. (six ancient) of Dr. Kennicott’s, thirty-six of De Rossi’s, and two of my own, and the old edition of 1488 have the noun in the plural number, naphsheynu, our souls; and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulgate. This reading is undoubtedly genuine.
In the day of your fast ye find pleasure] Fast days are generally called holidays, and holidays are days of idleness and pleasure. In numberless cases the fast is turned into a feast.
And exact all your labours.] Some disregard the most sacred fast, and will oblige their servant to work all day long; others use fast days for the purpose of settling their accounts, posting up their books, and drawing out their bills to be ready to collect their debts. These are sneaking hypocrites; the others are daringly irreligious.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? They complain of hard usage from God, that although they prayed, and fasted, and kept the rest of Gods ordinances, all which are synecdochically comprehended under the title of fasting, all their labour was lost, and God neither regarded nor delivered them.
Afflicted our soul; defrauded and pinched our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Lev 16:29; 23:27,29.
In the day of your fast; in those solemn days of fasting which I have appointed; or, in those times when I have called you by the course of my providence, and counsels of my prophets, unto fasting, and weeping, and mourning, &c., Isa 22:12. Ye find pleasure; either,
1. You indulge yourselves in sensuality, as they did, Isa 22:13. But this doth not agree with that afflicting of their souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledgeth, Isa 58:5. Or rather,
2. You pursue and satisfy your own lusts; though you abstain from bodily food, you do not mortify your own sinful concupiscences; and when you are restrained from outwards acts, yet even then your thoughts and affections are set upon and working toward those things which gratify your fleshly inclinations and worldly interests.
Your labours; your money got by your labour, and lent to others, either for their need, or your own advantage; for labour is oft put for wealth, as Deu 28:33; Isa 45:14, &c. Heb. your griefs; not passively, those things which are grievous to you; but actively, such as are very grievous and burdensome to others; either hard service, above the strength of your servants, or beyond the time limited by God for their service, of which see an instance, Jer 34:13-16; or debts, which you require either with usury, or at least with rigour and cruelty, when either the general law of charity, or Gods particular and positive law, commanded the release, or at least the forbearance, of them; of which see an instance, Neh 5:1,2, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Whereforethe words of theJews: “Why is it that, when we fast, Thou dost not notice it”(by delivering us)? They think to lay God under obligation totheir fasting (Psa 73:13;Mal 3:14).
afflicted . . . soul(Le 16:29).
BeholdGod’s reply.
pleasurein antithesisto their boast of having “afflicted their soul”; itwas only in outward show they really enjoyed themselves.GESENIUS not so welltranslates, “business.”
exact . . . laboursrather,”oppressive labors” [MAURER].HORSLEY, with Vulgate,translates, “Exact the whole upon your debtors“;those who owe you labor (Neh 5:1-5;Neh 5:8-10, &c.).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?…. Our fasting; takest no notice of it; expresses no approbation of it, and pleasure in it: this is put for all religious services, being what was frequently performed under the Old Testament, not only at certain times appointed by the Lord, but on other occasions, and of their own fixing; in which they put their confidence, and often boasted of,
Lu 18:12: “wherefore have we afflicted our soul”, by fasting, “and thou takest no knowledge?” of that, nor of us, and dost not save us from our enemies, and deliver us from our troubles, and bestow favours on us: they had a high opinion of their own performances, and thought that God must have likewise; and were displeased that he showed no more regard unto them:
behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure; this, and what follows in the two next verses, are an answer to their questions, and give reasons why the Lord took no more notice of their fasting, or of their services; because they were not done aright, they found their own pleasure in them; not that they indulged to bodily recreations and carnal delights, but they gratified the inward desires of the flesh, malice, envy, and the like; and they pleased themselves with their own duties, and fancied they procured the favour of God by them:
and exact all your labours; of their servants, or their money of their debtors; they grieved and afflicted their debtors, by demanding their debts of them, as Jarchi interprets it; and that in a very rigorous manner, requiring whole and immediate payment; or, as it is usual with establishments, they require an exact conformity to their manner of service, worship, and discipline.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There follow now the words of the work-righteous themselves, who hold up their fasting before the eyes of God, and complain that He takes no notice of it. And how could He?! “’Wherefore do we fast and Thou seest not, afflict our soul and Thou regardest not?’ Behold, on the day of your fasting ye carry on your business, and ye oppress all your labourers. Behold, ye fast with strife and quarrelling, and with smiting with the fist maliciously closed: ye do not fast now to make your voice audible on high.” By the side of (root , to press, tie up, constrain) we have here the older expression found in the Pentateuch, , to do violence to the natural life. In addition to the fasting on the day of atonement (the tenth of the seventh month Tizri ), the only fast prescribed by the law, other fasts were observed according to Zec 7:3; Zec 8:19, viz., fasts to commemorate the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem (10th Tebeth ), its capture (17th Tammuz ), its destruction (9th Aibb ), and the murder of Gedaliah (3rd Tizri ). The exiles boast of this fasting here; but it is a heartless, dead work, and therefore worthless in the sight of God. There is the most glaring contrast between the object of the fast and their conduct on the fast-day: for they carry on their work-day occupation; they are then, more than at any other time, true taskmasters to their work-people (lest the service of the master should suffer form the service of God); and because when fasting they are doubly irritable and ill-tempered, this leads to quarrelling and strife, and even to striking with angry fist ( , from , to collect together, make into a ball, clench). Hence in their present state the true purpose of fasting is quite unknown to them, viz., to enable them to draw near with importunate prayer to God, who is enthroned on high (Isa 57:15).
(Note: The ancient church called a fast statio , because he who fasted had to wait in prayer day and night like a soldier at his post. See on this and what follows, the Shepherd of Hermas, iii. Sim. 5, and the Epistle of Barnabas, c. iii.)
The only difficulty here is the phrase . In the face of Isa 58:13, this cannot have any other meaning than to stretch one’s hand after occupation, to carry on business, to occupy one’s self with it – combining the three meanings, application or affairs, striving, and trade or occupation. , however, maintains its primary meaning, to lay hold of or grasp (cf., Isa 10:14; Targ. , ye seek your livelihood). This is sustained by what follows, whether we derive (cf., , Isa 57:6) from ( et omnes labores vestros graves rigide exigitis ), (from which we have here for , Deu 15:3) being construed as in 2Ki 23:35 with the accusative of what is peremptorily demanded; or (what we certainly prefer) from ; or better still from morf ll (like ): omnes operarios vestros adigitis ( urgetis ), being construed with the accusative of the person oppressed, as in Deu 15:2, where it is applied to the oppression of a debtor. Here, however, the reference is not to those who owe money, but to those who owe labour, or to obligations to labour; and does not signify a debtor (an idea quite foreign to this verbal root), but a labourer, one who eats the bread of sorrows, or of hard toil (Psa 127:2). The prophet paints throughout from the life; and we cannot be persuaded by Stier’s false zeal for Isaiah’s authorship to give up the opinion, that we have here a figure drawn from the life of the exiles in Babylon.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| A Charge against the People. | B. C. 706. |
3 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. 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? 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Here we have, I. The displeasure which these hypocrites conceived against God for not accepting the services which they themselves had a mighty opinion of (v. 3): Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou 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 accepted. Having gone about to put a cheat upon God by their external services, here they go about to pick a quarrel with God for not being pleased with their services, as if he had not done fairly or justly by them. Observe, 1. How they boast of themselves, and magnify their own performances: “We have fasted, and afflicted our souls; we have not only sought God daily (v. 2), but have kept some certain times of more solemn devotion.” Some think this refers to the yearly fast (which was called the day of atonement), others to their arbitrary occasional fasts. Note, It is common for unhumbled hearts to be proud of their professions of humiliation, as the Pharisee (Luke xviii. 12), I fast twice in the week. 2. What they expected from their performances. They thought God should take great notice 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 course, or for a compliment. 3. How heinously they take it 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 up their religion, and justify themselves in doing so with this, that they had found no profit in praying to God, Job 21:14; Job 21:15; Mal 3:14. Note, 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 blame of. Sinners reflect upon religion as a hard and melancholy service, and on which there is nothing to be got by, when really it is owing to themselves that it seems so to them, because they are not sincere in it.
II. The true reason assigned why God did not accept their fastings, nor answer the prayers they made on their fast-days; it was because they did not fast aright–to God, even to him, Zech. 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 day of their fast, notwithstanding the professed humiliations and covenants of that day, they went on to find pleasure, that is, to do whatsoever seemed right in their own eyes, lawful or unlawful, quicquid libet, licet–making their inclinations their law; though they seemed to afflict their souls, they still gratified their lusts as much as ever. 1. They were as covetous and unmerciful as ever: “You exact all your labours from your servants, and will neither release them according to the law nor relax the rigour of their servitude.” This was their fault before the captivity, Jer 34:8; Jer 34:9. It was no less their fault after their captivity, notwithstanding all their solemn fasts, Neh. v. 5. “You exact all your dues, your debts” (so some read it); “you are as rigorous and severe in extorting what you demand from those that are poor as ever you were, though it was at the close of the yearly fast that the release was proclaimed.” 2. They were contentious and spiteful (v. 4): Behold, you fast for strife and debate. When they proclaimed a fast to deprecate God’s 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, as Naboth in the day of Jezebel’s fast, 1 Kings xxi. 12. Or the contending parties among them upon those occasions were bitter and severe in their reflections one upon another, one side crying out, “It is owing to you,” and the other, “It is owing to you, that our deliverance is not wrought.” Thus, instead of judging themselves, which is the proper work of a fast-day, they condemned one another. They fasted for strife, with emulation which should make the most plausible appearance on a fast-day and humour the matter best. Nor was it only tongue-quarrels that were fomented in the times of their fasting, but they came to blows too: You smite with the fist of wickedness. The cruel task-masters beat 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 directly contrary to the intention of a fasting day, (1.) God would not allow them the use of such solemnities: “You shall not fast at all if you fast as you do this day, causing your voice to be heard on high, in the heat of your clamours one against another, or in your devotions, which you perform so as to make them to be taken notice of for ostentation. Bring me no more of these empty, noisy, vain oblations,” ch. i. 13. Note, Those are justly forbidden the honour of a profession of religion that will not submit to the power of it. (2.) He would not accept of them in the use of them: “You shall not fast, that is, it shall not be looked upon as a fast, nor shall the voice of your prayers on those days be heard on high in heaven.” Note, Those that fast and pray, and yet go on in their wicked ways, do but mock God and deceive themselves.
III. Plain instructions given concerning the true nature of a religious fast.
1. In general, a fast is intended, (1.) For the honouring and pleasing of God. It must be such a performance as he has chosen (v. 5); it must be an acceptable day to the Lord, in the duties of which we must study to approve ourselves to him and obtain his favour, else it is not a fast, else there is nothing done to any purpose. (2.) For the humbling and abasing of ourselves. A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it do not express a genuine sorrow for sin, and do not promote a real mortification of sin, it is not a fast; the law of the day of atonement was that on that day they should afflict their souls, Lev. xvi. 29. That must be done on a fast-day which is a real affliction to the soul, as far as it is yet unregenerate and unsanctified, though a real pleasure and advantage to the soul as far as it is itself.
2. It concerns us therefore to enquire, on a fast-day, what it is that will be acceptable to God, and afflictive to our corrupt nature, and tending to its mortification.
(1.) We are here told negatively what is not the fast that God has chosen, and which does not amount to the afflicting of the soul. [1.] It is not enough to look demure, to put on a grave and melancholy aspect, to bow down the head like a bulrush that is withered and broken: as the hypocrites, that were of a sad countenance, and disfigured their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast, Matt. vi. 16. Hanging down the head did indeed well enough become the publican, whose heart was truly humbled and broken for sin, and who therefore, in token of that, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven (Luke xviii. 13); but when it was only mimicked, as here, it was justly ridiculed: it is but hanging down the head like a bulrush, which nobody regards or takes any notice 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 (Job 8:11; Job 8:12), which, while it is yet in its greenness, withers before any other herb. [2.] It is not enough to do penance, to mortify the body a little, while the body of sin is untouched. It is not enough for a man to spread sackcloth and ashes under him, which may indeed give him some uneasiness for the present, but will soon be forgotten when he returns to stretch himself upon his beds of ivory, Amos vi. 4. Wilt thou call this a fast? No, it is but the shadow and carcase of a fast. Wilt thou call this an acceptable day to the Lord? No, it is so far from being so that the hypocrisy of it is an abomination to him. Note, The shows of religion, though they show ever so fair in the eye of the world, will not be 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-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 day (as some read it, v. 5) that will serve; no, it must be the business of our whole lives. It is here required, [1.] That we be just to those with whom we have dealt hardly. The fast that God has chosen consists in reforming our lives and undoing what we have done amiss (v. 6): To loose the bands of wickedness, the bands which we have wickedly tied, and by which others are bound out from their right or bound down under severe usage. Those which perhaps 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 us 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 ready to sink. It is to let the oppressed go free from the oppression which makes his life bitter to him. “Let the prisoner for debt that has nothing to pay be discharged, let the vexatious action be quashed, let the servant that is forcibly detained beyond the time of his servitude be released, and thus break every yoke; not only let go those that are wrongfully kept under the yoke, but break the yoke of slavery itself, that it may not serve again another time nor any by made again to serve under it.” [2.] That we be charitable to those that stand in need of charity, v. 7. The particulars in the former verse may be taken as acts of charity, that we not only release those whom we have unjustly oppressed–that is justice, but 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 verse are plainly acts of charity. This then is the fast that God has chosen. First, To provide food for those that want it. This is put first, as the most necessary, and which the poor can but a little while live without. It is to break thy bread to the hungry. Observe, “It must be thy bread, that which is honestly got (not that which thou hast robbed others of), the bread which thou thyself hast occasion for, the bread of thy allowance.” We must deny ourselves, that we may have to give to him that needeth. “Thy bread which thou hast spared from thyself and thy family, on the fast-day, if that, or the value of it, be not given to the poor, it is the miser’s fast, which he makes a hand of; it is fasting for the world, not for God. This is the true fast, to break thy bread to the hungry, not only to give them that which is already broken meat, but to break bread on purpose for them, to give them loaves and not to put them off with scraps.” Secondly, To provide lodging for those that want it: It is to take care of the poor that are cast out, that are forced from their dwelling, turned out of house and harbour, are cast out as rebels (so some critics render it), that are attainted, and whom therefore it is highly penal to protect. “If they suffer unjustly, make no difficulty of sheltering them; do not only find out quarters for them and pay for their lodging elsewhere, but, which is a greater act of kindness, bring them to thy own house, make them thy own guests. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for though thou mayest not, as some have done, thereby entertain angels, thou mayest entertain Christ himself, who will recompense it in the resurrection of the just. I was a stranger and you took me in.” Thirdly, To provide clothing for those that want it: “When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, both to shelter him from the injuries of the weather and to enable him to appear decently among his neighbours; give him clothes to come to church in, and in these and other instances hide not thyself from thy own flesh.” Some understand it more strictly of a man’s own kindred and relations: “If those of thy own house and family fall into decay, thou art worse than an infidel if thou dost not provide for them.” 1 Tim. v. 8. Others understand it more generally; all that partake of the human nature are to be looked upon as our own flesh, for have we not all one Father? And for this reason we must not hide ourselves from them, not contrive to be out of the way when a poor petitioner enquires for us, not look another way when a moving object of charity and compassion presents itself; let 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 do good to our own flesh and spirit too in the issue; for thus we lay up for ourselves a good foundation, a good bond, for the time to come.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
3. Wherefore have we fasted? He proceeds farther with the same subject, and says that feigned and perverse worshippers of God are not only blinded by their hypocrisy, but likewise swell with pride, so that they venture openly to murmur at God, and to complain when he presses hard upon them, as if he had done them a grievous injury. “Dost thou reject our services, fastings, and prayers? Why are they not acceptable to thee? Do we not vex ourselves in vain?“
He has admitted, as we have already said, that hypocrites have some outward show of holiness, by which they deceive men; but now he declares that inwardly they are also puffed up and intoxicated by pride, while they have pretended good works, by which they think that they satisfy God, and, on this pretense, they carry themselves high against the prophets, and indulge in the worst vices, such as unbelief, rebellion, and obstinacy against God, distrust, cruelty, fraud, and pillage. These are light matters in themselves, and are easily washed away by other external exercises; for the former are their preeminent merits, in which they think that the worship of God consists, and from which they hope to obtain the pardon of all their sins. Thus they “strain out a gnat, (119) and do not scruple to swallow a whole camel.” (Mat 23:24) If such characters had been found among the Jews only, and if the world had changed its disposition, we should have needed to seek far for examples; but since we have experience of the same thing every day, there is no necessity for giving ourselves much trouble about the exposition of this passage.
This complaint may be viewed as referring both to the word and to the hand of God. In both ways God judges hypocrites; for he rebukes by the word, and punishes for their obstinate malice; and therefore those words may be viewed as referring both to the chastisements and to the preceding reproof. For my own part, I interpret it as relating to the word, and as a rebuke to hypocrites, who boasted of their fastings, and contrasted them with the censures of the prophets; as if they were the true worshippers of God, and were unjustly rebuked. I differ from those who think that the people blame God for treating them harshly during their captivity. On the contrary, it appears to me that they complain of the prophets for rebuking them with great sharpness and severity; for the Jews wished to be regarded as devout and religious persons, and could not patiently endure to be condemned for impiety and wickedness. For this reason the Prophet exposes their dispositions, and shows that they make war with God, that they may not suppose that they have to deal with him as a private individual.
Ye find pleasure and exact all your labors. In the second part of the verse he refutes, in the name of God, those virtues which hypocrites proclaim with the sound of a trumpet. It is, because they do not nevertheless lay aside the sinful dispositions of the flesh, or begin to deny themselves; for he condemns them chiefly on the ground of having been devoted to their desires, and next he enumerates particular kinds of vices. Hence we may easily infer that their heart is not moved by any anxiety to repent.
(119) For the meaning of this phrase, see our author’s Commentary on the harmony of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Vol. 3, p. 93. Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Wherefore have we fasted . . .The words remind us of those of a much later prophet (Mal. 3:14), but the complaints of the unconscious hypocrites who are amazed that their service is not accepted as sincere are in every age the same. Only one fast, that of the Day of Atonement, was prescribed by the Law. In practice, however, they were often held in times of calamity (comp. Isa. 32:12; Joe. 1:13; 2Ch. 20:3),and we may legitimately think of them as having been more or less frequent under Hezekiah (Isa. 37:1-2). Now, as though that had been a meritorious work, the people ask what good had come of it? After the exile fasts were instituted, commemorative of the siege of Jerusalem, its capture, its destruction, and the murder of Gedaliah (Zec. 7:3; Zec. 8:19), and those who maintain the later date of the book naturally suppose that these are the fasts referred to.
In the day of your fast ye find pleasure . . .Better, ye carry on your business. Fasts were not governed, like the Sabbath, by a fixed law, and the people consequently lost sight of the true end of fastingprayer, meditation, penitence.
Exact all your labours.The words are rendered by some critics more vividly, though with the same meaning, ye oppress all your labourers. (Comp. Jas. 5:4.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3, 4. Wherefore have we fasted, (say they,) and thou seest not They turn to complaining of God. He does not honour their work-righteousness; does not see it; gives it no attention. The answer is, Ye deserve it not. While pretending solemn devotion, ye exact all your labours Your grievous tasks. ( Gesenius.) Ye do all this for gain. Your devotion to me is all hypocrisy. More than this: ye fast for strife Your fasting and self-imposed inflictions make you no better. All of it, with the spirit you have, renders you contentious. And smite with the fist of wickedness. Exo 21:18. Your servants suffer by your fasting. This requires you to be mild, patient to all, and humble before all. Nerves rasped by abstinence should be better under control. Your fasting is an offence “I cannot away with.” Isa 1:11-15.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
And you oppress all those who labour on your behalf,
Behold you fast for strife and contention,
And to smite with the fist of wickedness.
You do not fast as you do this day
So as to make your voice heard on high.”
God replies to their claims. Their fasting is hypocritical, for while engaging in it they go out of their way to find their own pleasure. It is half-hearted. This suggests that it was often a formal fast without being too strictly observed, or without being too demanding. Furthermore their claims to exercise fair judgments is not true. Instead their behaviour is abominable. Even while outwardly fasting and appearing humble they oppress their workers, they involve themselves in strife and court action in every aspect of life, and they behave with unreasonable and sin-inspired violence. They are as far from ‘truly just’ as it is possible to be. Indeed they use the time of their fast for these very purposes.
Thus any seeming merit in their fasting is lost in view of their attitude to life and its resulting behaviour. This kind of fasting will not result in their voice being heard by God.
Fasting is a feature of religion in any age. Where it results in a genuine seeking after God Himself it can be beneficial. But it can easily deteriorate into being seen as a means of putting God under an obligation so that He has to respond, or of impressing men with one’s holiness.
There is no need to see these as official fasts. Indeed the idea is that they occurred continually in the every day course of life, as did their sins that accompanied them. It may well be that such regular days of fasting had become the fashion in Isaiah’s troubled times, due to the outward threat of Assyria, as they did later with the Pharisees.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 58:3. Behold, &c. “You gratify your passions, especially your covetousness: you oppress the poor, and therefore are defective in the duties of justice and charity.” By labours are meant those riches which are gotten by the toil and fatigue of ourselves or others; and by exacting our labours, in the style of the Mosaic law, is meant, the rigorous insisting upon payment, where the debtor is unable to make it. The next verse fully explains this clause; and no reader can fail to admire the subsequent part of this chapter, wherein the prophet sets forth, in the fullest manner possible, the vanity of all external and formal professions in religion, unaccompanied by genuine holiness, virtue, and undissembled love and charity.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 58:3 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.
Ver. 3. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? ] Here they begin to bluster, and their hypocrisy to blister out at their lips. a God, they held, was not a little beholden to them, and now also in arrears with them. For as that heathen emperor b said once of his gods, Non sic deos coluimus, ut iste nos vinceret, We have not served our gods, that they should serve us no better than to allow our enemies to get the better of us; so were these proud pretenders ready to say of God Almighty, We have better deserved than to be so served; rated by these prophets, and evil entreated by our enemies; beaten on both sides. A rich chapman, that hath had a good stock and trading, is loath to be a journeyman again; he will be trading, though it be but for pins; so we, bankrupt in Adam, yet will be doing, and think to be saved for a company of poor beggarly duties, dead prayers, formal fastings, &c., and to set off with God by our good deeds for our bad, as the Papists do, and not a few ignorants among us.
Behold, in the day of your fast.
Ye find pleasure.
And exact all your labours,
a Ecce non diu occultant se hypocrisis et superbia. – Oecol.
b Antonin., Philos. Referente.
c Chephets significat id quod libet.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Wherefore . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis.
afflicted our soul. Reference to Pentateuch. This is a strictly Levitical technical expression (Lev 16:29, Lev 16:31; Lev 23:27, Lev 23:32. Num 29:7). This shows that the People were not in exile as alleged, but in the Land. See also the references to other observances below (Isa 58:13). Note that in Isaiah 58 and Isaiah 59 we have the reference to the Day of Atonement; in Isaiah 60 and Isaiah 61, to the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. Isaiah 60 refers to the feast of Tabernacles with its “ingathering” (verses: Isa 58:3-5, Isa 58:13), which followed the Day of Atonement (Lev 23:27, Lev 23:34).
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13. Some codices, with one early printed edition, Aramaean, Septuagint, and Vulgate, read “souls” (plural)
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
have we fasted: Num 23:4, Mic 3:9-11, Zec 7:5-7, Mal 3:14, Mat 20:11, Mat 20:12, Luk 15:29, Luk 18:9-12
afflicted: Lev 16:29, Lev 16:31, Lev 23:27, Psa 69:10
in: Dan 10:2, Dan 10:3, Jon 3:6-8
exact: Neh 5:7, Pro 28:9, Jer 34:9-17, Mat 18:28-35
labours: or, things wherewith ye grieve others, Heb. griefs. Isa 47:6, Exo 2:23, Exo 2:24
Reciprocal: Exo 21:20 – smite Exo 23:12 – and the son Lev 23:32 – afflict Lev 25:43 – rule Num 29:7 – afflict Deu 15:2 – exact it 1Sa 4:3 – Wherefore Ezr 8:21 – afflict ourselves Job 39:7 – driver Psa 35:13 – humbled Psa 80:4 – how long Isa 29:13 – Forasmuch Isa 58:5 – a day for a man to afflict his soul Jer 2:35 – Because Jer 14:12 – they fast Mal 2:14 – Wherefore Mat 6:16 – be Mat 25:24 – I knew Luk 5:33 – Why Luk 18:12 – fast Eph 6:9 – ye Col 4:1 – give 1Ti 4:8 – bodily Jam 1:7 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 58:3. Wherefore have we fasted, &c. They complain of hard usage from God; that although they prayed, and fasted, and observed the rest of his ordinances, all which are comprehended under the title of fasting, all their labour was lost, and God neither delivered nor regarded them. Wherefore have we afflicted our soul Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Lev 16:29; Lev 23:27; Lev 23:29. Behold, in the day of your fast In those solemn days of fasting which I have appointed; or, in those times when I have called you, by the course of my providence, and counsels of my prophets, unto fasting, and weeping, and mourning, Isa 22:12; ye find pleasure, and exact, &c. Or, as the words may be more significantly rendered, You find wherewithal to please yourselves, and are rigorous in grieving, or burdening, others: that is, You gratify your own passions, especially your covetousness, and you oppress the poor, and so are defective in the duties of justice and charity. By labours may be meant money gotten by labour, and lent to others, either for their need or the lenders advantage. For labour is often put for the fruit of labour, as Deu 28:33; Isa 45:14. But the Hebrew here, , is literally, your griefs, namely, the things which cause griefs, which are grievous and burdensome to others, as either, 1st, Hard service required of servants above their strength, or beyond the time limited by God for their service, of which see Jer 34:13-16 : or, 2d, Debts, which they required, either with usury or with rigour and cruelty, when the general law of charity, or Gods particular law, enjoined the release, or, at least, the forbearance of them. See Neh 5:1-2.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
58:3 {c} Why have we fasted, [say they], and thou seest not? [why] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find {d} pleasure, and exact all your labours.
(c) He sets forth the malice and disdain of the hypocrites, who grudge against God, if their works are not accepted.
(d) Thus he convinces the hypocrites by the second table and by their duty toward their neighbour, that they have neither faith nor religion.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
They could not understand why God had not blessed them-because they had fasted and humbled themselves (cf. Mal 3:13-15). The only fast that the Mosaic Law commanded was on the Day of Atonement (Lev 23:26-32). But the Israelites also fasted voluntarily, even in Isaiah’s day. [Note: On the practice of fasting, see Kent D. Berghuis, "A Biblical Perspective on Fasting," Bibliotheca Sacra 158:629 (January-March 2001):86-103.] The reason God had not blessed them was that when they fasted, they did not demonstrate the attitudes and activities that fasting represented. They did not really sacrifice their own desires, and they continued to treat other people inconsiderately. They pursued their personal interests and worked when they fasted, and they insisted that their employees keep on working. They were practicing religious ritual to try to manipulate God into blessing them.
"But repentance is not for the purpose of getting God to do anything; it is an expression of the conviction that my ways are wrong and God’s ways are right, whether he does anything for me or not." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 497.]