Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 58:4
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.
4. ye fast for strife and contention (R.V.)] The fasting made them as irritable as Arabs in the month of Ramadan; it produced a quarrelsome temper which even led to open violence, “smiting with godless fist.”
ye shall not fast &c.] Render: ye do not fast at present so as to make &c., i.e. “with your present mode of fasting, your prayers can never reach the ear of Jehovah.”
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
Hamlet, Act iii. Scene iii. 97 f.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate – This is a third characteristic of their manner of fasting, and a third reason why God did not regard and accept it. They were divided into parties and factions, and probably made their fastings an occasion of augmented contention and strife. How often has this been seen! Contending denominations of Christians fast, not laying aside their strifes; contending factions in the church fast in order to strengthen their party with the solemn sanctions of religion. One of the most certain ways for bigots to excite persecution against those who are opposed to them is to proclaim a fast; and when together, their passions are easily inflamed, their flagging zeal excited by inflammatory harangues, and their purpose formed to regard and treat their dissentient brethren as incorrigible heretics and irreconcilable foes. It may be added, also, that it is possible thus to prostitute all the sacred institutions of religion for party and inflammatory purposes. Even the ordinance of the Lords Supper may be thus abused, and violent partisans may come around the sacred memorials of a Saviours body and blood, to bind themselves more closely together in some deed of persecution or violence, and to animate their drooping courage with the belief that what has been in fact commenced with a view to power, is carried on from a regard to the honor of God.
And to smite with the fist of wickedness – Lowth renders this, in accordance with the Septuagint. To smite with the fist the poor; but this translation can be obtained only by a most violent and wholly unauthorized change in the Hebrew text. The idea is plain, that even when fasting they were guilty of strife and personal combats. Their passions were unsubdued, and they gave vent to them in disgraceful personal encounters. This manifests a most extraordinary state of society, and is a most melancholy instance to show how much people may keep up the forms of religion, and even be punctual and exact in them, when the most violent and ungovernable passions are raging in their bosoms, and when they seem to be unconscious of any discrepancy between the religious service and the unsubdued passions of the soul.
Ye shall not fast … – It is not acceptable to God. It must be offensive in his sight.
To make your voice to be heard on high – That is, in strife and contention. So to contend and strive, says Grotius, that your voice can be heard on the mountain top. Rosenmuller, however, supposes that it means, that their fast was so conducted that they could not expect that their prayers would ascend to heaven and be heard by God. But it seems to me that the former is the correct interpretation. Their fastings were accompanied with the loud and hoarse voice of contention and strife, and on that account could not be acceptable to God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. Ye fast for strife and debate] How often is this the case! A whole nation are called to fast to implore God’s blessing on wars carried on for the purposes of wrath and ambition.
To smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day – “To smite with the fist the poor. Wherefore fast ye unto me in this manner”] I follow the version of the Septuagint, which gives a much better sense than the present reading of the Hebrew. Instead of resha lo, they seem to have read in their copy rash al mah lli. The four first letters are the same, but otherwise divided in regard to the words; the four last are lost, and aleph added in their place, in order to make some sort of sense with . The version of the Septuagint is, – as above.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ye fast for strife and debate; your fasting days, wherein you ought in a special manner to implore the mercy of God, and to show compassion to men, you employ in a great measure in injuring or quarrelling with your brethren, your servants, or debtors, or in contriving mischief against them, as if the design of your fasting and praying to God were only to obtain a licence to oppress men. Compare Mat 23:14.
With the fist of wickedness; or, with a wicked fist; a genitive of the adjunct. To deal rigorously and injuriously with your servants or debtors; which servants, it may be, had sold themselves to the year of redemption, Exo 21:2; Lev 25:39,40,50. You handle them with a hard hand; the word is used for fist, Exo 21:18; the LXX. add the humble, poor, or inferior person; and that not only their debtors, with a summum jus, exact rigour, which seems elsewhere to be expressed by grinding the face; Isa 3:15, and in that parable by taking by the throat, Mat 18:28; but also their servants out of mere will and pleasure, and in contempt of them, treating them opprobriously, as Christ was handled in contempt and scorn, Mat 26:67,68; Joh 18:22.
Your voice; either,
1. In strife and debate, in which mens passions show themselves by loud clamours. Or,
2. So as to cause the cry of the oppressed, by reason of your injuries, of what kind soever, to enter into the ears of God; which is a crying sin, whether it proceed from unmercifulness, Exo 22:25-27, which sometimes increaseth to rage, 2Ch 28:9; or from injustice, Isa 5:7; or from fraud and deceit, Jam 5:4. The Scripture doth frequently express whatever sin is against charity in special, as also general complex sins, by crying, Gen 18:20,21; Jon 1:2. Or,
3. By way of ostentation, to note their hypocrisy; they love to be taken notice of by others, Mt 6 2,5,16; or their folly, supposing that they shall be heard for their much speaking, upon which account Baals priests are mocked by Elijah, 1Ki 18:27,28 4. Voice here relates principally to their prayer; it is a synecdoche of the kind: so the sense is, This is not the way to have your prayers heard; if you desire that, you must first in another manner, and abstain from all kind of oppression. And this seems best to suit the context, which is to show what kind of fast the Lord reproves, and what he approves in the following verses.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. ye shall not fastrather,”ye do not fast at this time, so as to make your voice to beheard on high,” that is, in heaven; your aim in fasting isstrife, not to gain the ear of God [MAURER](1Ki 21:9; 1Ki 21:12;1Ki 21:13). In English Versionthe sense is, If you wish acceptance with God, ye must not fast as yenow do, to make your voice heard high in strife.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate,…. Brawling with their servants for not doing work enough; or quarrelling with their debtors for not paying their debts; or the main of their religion lay in contentions and strifes about words, vain hot disputations about rites and ceremonies in worship, as is well known to have been the case of the reformed churches:
and to smite with the fist of wickedness; their servants or their debtors; or rather it may design the persecution of such whose consciences would not suffer them to receive the doctrines professed; or submit to ordinances as administered; or comply with rites and ceremonies enjoined by the said churches; for which they have smitten their brethren that dissented from them with the fist, or have persecuted them in a violent manner by imprisonment, confiscation of goods, c. all which is no other than a fist of wickedness, and highly displeasing to God, and renders all their services unacceptable in his sight; see Mt 24:49:
ye shall not fast as ye do this day; or, “as this day”; after this manner; this is not right:
to make your voice to be heard on high; referring either to their noisy threatening of their servants for not doing their work; or their clamorous demands upon their debtors; or to their loud prayers, joined with their fasting, which they expected to be heard in the highest heaven, but would be mistaken; for such services, attended with the above evils, are not wellpleasing to God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4. Behold, for strife and contention ye fast. This verse ought to be connected with the end of the preceding verse; for, having in the former clause introduced hypocrites as complaining of the violence and harshness of the prophets, he assigns, in the latter clause, the reason why the Lord loathes their fasts and their other performances. It is because they do not proceed from pure affection of heart. What the inclination of their heart is, he shows from its fruits; for he sends them back to the duties of the second table, from which it is easily seen what we are. Purity of heart is manifested by our living innocently, and abstaining from all deceit and injustice. These are the marks of pure affection, in the absence of which the Lord rejects, and even abhors, all external worship. Wherever, on the other hand, cheating, and plunder, and extortion prevail, it is very certain that there is no fear of God.
Thus he reproaches hypocrites with making their fasts to give greater encouragement to sin, and with giving a looser rein to their lusts. We have experience of this every day. Not only do many people fast in order to atone for their cheating and robberies, and to plunder more freely, but even that, during the time of the fast, they may have greater leisure for examining their accounts, perusing documents, and calculating usury, and contriving methods by which they may lay hold on the property of their debtors. On that account they frequently throw this labor on Lent and on the stated times of fasts; and, in like manner, other notable hypocrites hear many Masses every day, that they may more freely, and with less interruption, and under the pretense of religion, contrive their cheating and treachery.
Fast not, as ye do this day. At length he rejects their fasts, however highly they may value them; because in this manner the wrath of God is still more provoked. Immediately afterwards he rejects also their prayers.
That ye may make your voice to be heard on high. (120) Hence it is evident, (as we have explained fully in our exposition of Isa 1:11,) that God approves of no duties which are not accompanied by sincere uprightness of heart. Certainly no sacrifice is more excellent than calling upon God; and yet we see how all prayers are stained and polluted by impurity of heart. Besides, in consequence of fasting being usually joined to prayer, the Prophet takes this for granted; for it is an appendage to prayer, he therefore forbids such men to offer up solemn prayer accompanied by fasting; because they will gain nothing, except that the Lord will punish them more severely. And hence we infer (as has been already said) that the Lord pays no regard to external works, if they be not preceded by sincere fear of God.
Such fasting as was customary among the Jews is not here blamed in itself, as if it were a superstitious ceremony, but abuse of fasting, and false confidence. This ought to be carefully observed; for we would need to deal very differently with the Papists, if we blamed their fasts. They contain nothing but superstition, being tied to this or that day, or to fixed seasons, as if during the rest of the time they were at liberty to gormandize; while they think that the flesh is unclean, and yet allow every kind of indulgence to it; provided only that they do not once gormandize on a fastday, they think that they have discharged their duty admirably well. Since therefore there is nothing in them that can be approved, we may absolutely condemn them.
But the dispute on this occasion was different. That fasting which the Jews observed was laudable in itself, because God had appointed it; but a false opinion respecting it was censurable. Among the Papists, on the other hand, we must condemn both the false opinion and the institution itself; because it is wicked. The Papists have this in common with the Jews, that they think that they serve God by it, and that it is a meritorious work. Yet fasting is not the worship of God, and is not in itself commanded by him, in the same manner as those works which he enjoins in the Law; but it is an external exercise, which is auxiliary to prayer, or is useful for subduing the flesh, or testifying our humiliation, when, as guilty persons, we implore that the wrath of God may be turned away in adversity. But the reader will find the use and design of fasting more fully discussed in our Institutes. (Book 4, chapter 12:1521)
(120) “Luther and other early writers understand the last clause as a prohibition of noisy quarrels, ‘to make the voice heard on high,’ being taken as equivalent to letting it be heard in the street. (Isa 42:3) Vitringa and the later writers give it a meaning altogether different, by taking מרום ( marom) in the sense of heaven, (Isa 57:15,) and the whole clause as a declaration that such fasting would not have the desired effect of gaining audience and acceptance for their prayers. (See Joe 1:14)” — Alexander.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
PERIODICAL FASTS
Isa. 58:4. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day.
Periodical fasts, such as the Ritualists would have us keep in Lent, instead of being well pleasing in the sight of God, are offensive to Him.
I. THEY ARE BASED UPON A FALSE CONCEPTION OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD. Their promoters say: This is to be a season of special religiousness; therefore it is to be a time of mortification, fasting, and gloom. This is a season in which to do special honour to God; therefore let His altars and priests be clad in sad vestments, and let His people weep and lament. This view makes God find a pleasure in the self-inflicted grievance of His creatures. It implies that blessings which He has lavishly scattered around us are given rather as tests of our faith and self-denial; that they are here, not for us to rejoice in the works of His hands, but by renouncing them to show our love and loyalty to Him. How is such a view at all reconcilable with the love of the Divine Father? Is it thus that we should deal with our children! Is it credible that any parent, of true and loving heart, would take a studious son into a library of books, every one of which were calling to him to come and enrich himself on its treasures; or a child with rich and cultured musical gifts into a room where were exquisite instruments from which he longed to draw forth strains of sweet melody; or a daughter with a passionate love of flowers into a garden which was one blaze of beauty, and then say, These are yours; but you will please me best if you do not gratify the desire which would lead you to use them? It is not that you would thus impoverish me, for I could easily supply the place of any you might appropriate; but it will please me if you look at them, long for them, and yet abstain from them. I know it will be a great trial; I have little doubt it will make you miserable; but it is that which will please me. No father, worthy of the name, would be guilty of such heartlessness. Yet it is just this which men ascribe to God, when they fancy that He is pleased if we afflict our souls, bow down our head like a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under us.
II. THEY ARE BASED UPON, AND PROMOTE FALSE VIEWS OF HUMAN DUTY.
1. Their evident tendency is to encourage the old notion of the sinfulness of the material world, the body, and all by which it is nourished and refreshed. It is true that in the New Testament the flesh is represented as the natural and deadly foe of the spirit; but the flesh denotes not the bodily nature, but the passions and lusts of an unrenewed heart. No doubt these are inflamed by the bodily senses; and if a man finds that fasting helps him to subdue them, let him fast. But to fast under the idea that the body is sinful, and that the more we can mortify it the betterto fast at the cost of physical health and energy is something more than a mistake; it is a sin to sacrifice that health which is one of Gods most precious gifts, and which is so essential to enable us to do the service in the world which He requires at our hands.
2. They lead to a substitution of an outward and bodily for an inward and spiritual service. Bodily fasting is put in the place of that spirit of moderation, self-conquest, and self-sacrifice, which the prophet describes as the true fast. To their selfishness, passion, and worldly pride, the misguided religionists add the pride of self-righteousness, and so their last state is worse than the first. Let us use all aids which can advance us in likeness to Christ, and remember that all religious services which have not this result, whatever else they may have to recommend them, are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbol.J. G. Rogers, B.A.: Christian World Pulpit, ii. 145148.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(4) Behold, ye fast for strife and debate.The words possibly point to the psychological fact that an unspiritual fasting irritates the nerves and embitters the temper. Extremes meet, and the disputes of fasting controversialists are often as fierce as those of drunken disputants. (Comp. the conspiracy of Act. 23:21.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 58:4. Ye shall not fast, &c. Ye fast not this day, so as to make your voice [or prayers] to be heard above. Isa 58:5. Is it such a fast as I should choose, a day, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 58:4 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.
Ver. 4. Behold. ] Take notice whence it is, that ye so miscarry in your services, and leave muttering against me.
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 voices to be heard on high.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
ye fast. Referring to Day of Atonement, which was still observed; and in the Land, not in exile, as alleged.
wickedness = lawlessness. Hebrew. rasha’ App-44.
ye shall not. Some codices, with two early printed editions, read “and ye shall not”.
to make = if ye would make.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 58:4-12
Isa 58:4-6
“Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah? Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”
“Ye fast for strife and contention …” (Isa 58:4). Barnes quoted the Syriac version here which rendered the place, “In the day of your fasting, you indulge your lusts, and draw near to all your idols.” The strife and contention associated with those ancient fasts could have been with reference to the “new religion” of the day that the leaders had introduced to replace the old. Also, there could have been instances like that described in Php 1:15, in which men actually preached the gospel through envy and strife.
“Ye fast not this day so as to make your voice heard in high …” (Isa 58:4). This means, “You do not keep the day of Atonement, as God has commanded,” because that is the only possible day, the observance of which, was able to cause one’s voice to be heard “on high.” Note too the singular designation of it in the next verse, and the purpose of the day “to afflict the soul.” Note also that God is speaking of the “day I have chosen,” the day of Atonement being the only fast day God commanded.
“Is it to spread sackcloth and ashes under him …” (Isa 58:5)? The question that follows this question requires a negative answer; and the meaning is that they were sitting on sackcloth and ashes when they required their servants to provide them a feast; and they called that a fast!
Isa 58:6 indicates that there were widespread violations of the requirements of social justice, which should have resulted from the “afflictions” and meditations of the day of Atonement; but that day was not being observed in the manner God commanded.
Isa 58:3b-5 HYPOCRISY: Now Jehovah exposes the hypocrisy of their religiosity. Jehovah makes it plain that He does indeed know what they are doing! They are not fasting to afflict their souls. While they pretend to fast, they are really indulging in their favorite occupation-making money. The Hebrew words atzevyekem negoshu are from root words that literally mean, grieve and oppress respectively, but translated labors and exact respectively. Obviously, these people were not gathering at fasts to grieve and oppress their own souls so they must have been plotting business deals that would grieve and oppress one another or the poor.
A word about fasting may be in order here. The Hebrew word used for fast in the Pentateuch is innah and means literally to afflict (the soul) (cf. Lev 16:29). The Hebrew word most often used after the Pentateuch (and not used in the Pentateuch) is tzum meaning literally to abstain. Both words are used in verse three. Actually, fasting was commanded in the Law of Moses only once (Lev 16:29) and that on the Day of Atonement. Apparently, the Hebrew people amplified this command and extended it to most any time of sorrow or need for repentance. The nation and individuals were capable of fasting with proper motives (cf. 1Sa 7:6; 2Sa 1:12; Jdg 20:26; 1Ki 21:12-29; Psa 109:24; Jer 36:9; Est 4:1-3; Est 4:16; Neh 1:4). The Jewish people who came back from the captivities had doubts about the efficacy of so many fasts and inquired of the prophets and priests whether they should keep them all or not (cf. Zec 7:1-6; Zec 8:13). In Isaiahs day these fasts were being exploited for mercenary purposes.
The fasts, rather than providing an opportunity for men to abstain from worldly pursuits, afflict their souls and concentrate on Gods holiness, provided opportunities for them to haggle, strive, contend, argue and even physically strike one another over profiteering. Leupold visualizes these verses: The prophet follows them to their place of assembly on a fast day. There, off in a corner, two men are not evaluating their own conduct and that of their nation; they are not seeking the face of God in true repentance. They are carrying on a business transaction. Or . . . while they are publicly engaged in holy exercises, at home the laborer who is working for them is slaving under heavy burdens and is being oppressed.
Rhetorically the Lord asks, Do you think this is the kind of fast I would approve? Their humility was mockery. The long, tender rush-was easily bent double without breaking and furnished a graphic figure for the bent-over false humility of these hypocrites. Jesus described the false humility of the fasting hypocrites of His day as skuthropos (Greek for sad, dejected, sullen, morose). Jesus said the hypocrites of His day made their normal faces to disappear (aphanizousin, Gr.) so they might put on faces (hopos phanosin) of fasting, (Mat 6:16-18). These men of Isaiahs day were extreme in their pretentions even to spreading under themselves a bed of sackcloth and ashes. But none of it fooled God! Let every man who reads this be forever impressed with this-God is not mocked! Religious ritual (no matter how scriptural and orthodox and correct) if it is coerced, psyched, or played-at, if the heart is not right, is an abomination to God! We cannot put on a sad face and fool God; we cannot put on a happy face and fool God; we cannot put on any face and fool God!
Isa 58:7-8
“Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am.”
Here is a beautiful description of what composes true righteousness. It is shaft ng one’s bread with the hungry; it is bringing the homeless, the dispossessed poor, into one’s house; it is clothing the naked, etc. The great fault of the human race is that people who have plenty frequently have faces of flint toward the poor, hungry, helpless and downtrodden of the earth.
“Is it not to deal thy bread …” (Isa 58:7). This means, “Is not the affliction, fasting, and worship of God in such services as the day of Atonement for the purpose of causing one to be thoughtful and concerned for the less fortunate, and leading to their relief provided by the worshippers of God?
Isa 58:9-12
“If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noonday; and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt be as a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and Thou shalt be called the Repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.”
Here is a continuation and enlargement upon what has already been stated. “The yoke” refers to burdens and oppressions imposed upon the less fortunate; “pointing the finger” is a reference to accusations against others; and enough of this type of evil can destroy any society on earth, or any church.
“Draw out thy soul …” (Isa 58:10). “This means to impart of thy own substance to those in need.
“Light in darkness … Jehovah will guide thee … satisfy thy soul in dry places … make strong thy bones … etc.” All of these are promises of the wonderful blessings of God for those who will heed his word. The watered garden and the spring with unfailing waters are also metaphors of the same gracious blessings.
“Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations …” (Isa 58:12). “The literal and spiritual restoration of Israel is meant by this; and it was prophesied that by this means marvelous results would be produced in the whole Gentile world. These marvelous developments never occurred, because Israel refused to be restored spiritually, becoming instead a bitter enemy of the Messiah and opposing the preaching of his gospel with every device they could muster, including violence, murder, political intimidation, and mob violence. This was no denial of the great prophecy here. Note that tremendous IF that stands at the beginning of Isa 58:9 b!
We believe that Rawlinson was wrong in his supposition that the returning Israelites from captivity would be the ones who would repair the breach and restore the old paths in which to dwell. Man’s sin is such a weight that no nation can lift itself into a state of restoration. These words point to the Messiah
Isa 58:6-9 a REPENTANCE: God promises wholeness to those who will keep His covenant. But Judah needs to repent before it can meet Gods standards of holiness. That is, the nation must change its direction theologically (repenting of idolatry) and morally (repenting of social transgressions). This has to be done individually, of course. If Judah will keep her covenant with the Lord as He wishes her to she will loose the bonds of wickedness, unto the . . . yoke . . ., feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. The word fast in verse six may be used generically to mean the total relationship of man toward God which would be covenant relationship. Micahs prophecy gives an excellent parallel to Isaiah; they were, after all, contemporaries. Micah, chapters 1-3, document the atrocious sins of the powerful against the weak; chapters 4-5 promise the messianic destiny of the Jews; chapters 6-7 announce to the people of Micahs day what they must do to cooperate with Jehovah in that destiny. The essence of covenant-keeping, according to Micah, is not spectacular religious ritual or sacrifice but simply being Godlike in the everyday, mundane relationships with both God and man. Micah puts it this way, He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Mic 6:8).
It should not be strange to the people of Judah that one of their prophets would exhort them to care for the poor. The Law of Moses was very clear on caring for the poor (cf. Deu 14:28 to Deu 15:18). The Law of Moses was also explicit as to responsibilities toward ones own flesh and blood (family relationships). In such areas as training and discipline of children, levirate law of provision for in-laws, divorce, inheritance laws, etc., the Law is plain. It seems almost incredible that people should have to be reminded to take care of their families, yet even in the New covenant scriptures Christians are admonished, if any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1Ti 5:8). The Pharisees, rather than honoring their fathers and mothers by financial support in their old age, declared their assets Corban (devoted to God and unavailable for social security support). And the Pharisees were very religious people who were certain that they, above every one else, were covenant people of Jehovah!
If the people will repent (change) and turn back to the instructions of God in the Law of Moses, God promises three distinct changes will take place in their society: (a) Healing of the wounds and sicknesses of society will take place suddenly and brilliantly like the morning sun. In the land of Palestine, the sun seems to come up instantaneously, not gradually, as in lands with an abundance of trees and other things to block the horizon. (b) The righteousness they practice will be a source of safety and security for life and at the same time Jehovah will give His glorious providential safety and security. Judah will be surrounded by a security of righteousness. (c) Repentance will also bring renewed access to God. Jehovah cannot countenance a kingdom in rebellion. Man is created with a free will and the freedom to choose his spiritual Sovereign. If man wishes God to be his Sovereign, man must conform to the Sovereigns rule. As long as man rebels against the sovereignty of God, he cannot (because he does not want) have access to God. Jehovah will answer all who surrender to His sovereignty and call upon Him.
Isa 58:9 b – Isa 58:12 RESULTS: There are grander and more gratifying results to add to the nation if it repents. The qualification is restated, but still the same: repentance. Evidently the putting forth of the finger was a kind of derisive, contemptuous pointing of the finger (cf. Pro 6:13). It is listed here in connection with speaking wickedly and must have reference to slander or unjust accusations. God says men must repent of that. It is graphic evidence of a hateful heart-one that would despise the hungry and have no compassion on the afflicted.
But look at the promised results of repentance: (a) continual guidance of Jehovah who is absolute truth, absolute justice, absolute righteousness. To the individual who repents will come a personal satisfaction of the soul like the desert nomads thirst is satisfied when he finds a cool, shady, bubbling spring of water. There will come personal wholeness and spiritual integration like a man feels physically when he is young and strong and in the prime of health. (b) The man who repents and keeps Gods covenant will also produce something for the benefit of others. He will become like a watered garden and a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Jesus said His disciples would become rivers of living water (cf. Joh 7:37-39). The disciples of Jesus are to become salt of the earth and light of the world (cf. Mat 5:13-16). (c) The man who repents will build the kingdom of God. Obviously, the rebuilding work of those who repent here is the rebuilding of the peoples covenant relationship to Jehovah in order that they may fulfill their messianic destiny and form the kingdom of God on earth (the church). Repairing literal walls and building literal foundations can in no way be the goal of this prophecy. Its only goal is to encourage the people of Isaiahs day to be instruments of Jehovah as He reaches toward the establishment of New Israel. And the church was founded on a generation of covenant-keeping Hebrews in the first century A.D. when the gospel was obeyed first in Jerusalem, then in Judea, then in Samaria and then in the uttermost parts of the earth.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
ye fast: 1Ki 21:9-13, Pro 21:27, Mat 6:16, Mat 23:14, Luk 20:47, Joh 18:28
and to smite: Act 23:1, Act 23:2, Phi 1:14, Phi 1:15
shall not fast as ye do this day: or, fast not as this day, to make. Joe 2:13, Joe 2:14, Jon 3:7, Mat 6:16-18
Reciprocal: Exo 21:20 – smite Num 23:4 – I have prepared 2Sa 15:7 – pay 1Ki 21:12 – General Isa 3:15 – ye beat Isa 40:9 – lift up Zec 7:5 – did 1Ti 6:4 – words Jam 1:7 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 58:4-5. Behold, ye fast for strife Your fasting days, wherein you ought, in a special manner, to implore the mercy of God, and to show compassion to men, you employ in injuring or quarrelling with your brethren, your servants, or debtors, or in contriving mischief against them. Or the meaning is, that their fasting increased their self-preference, and excited them to fierce controversies or bitter resentments. And to smite with the fist of wickedness It was the cloak of, and commutation for, their exactions and oppressions of the poor, whom they most unjustly smote and abused for not complying in every thing with their inclinations. Scott. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day Such a fast as this I cannot accept of as an act of worship, or bless as a means of grace. To make your voice to be heard on high In strife and debate, or by way of ostentation. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? That is, which I approve of, accept, or delight in, because we delight in what we freely choose. A day for a man to afflict his soul To keep himself low, or to chastise himself by depriving his body of food, as a means to produce inward sorrow for sin, and true humiliation of soul before God. The prophet seems to have delivered this discourse upon, or to have intended it for, some extraordinary day of humiliation, when it was usual for the prophets to give public exhortations to the people. Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush? Here the prophet notices those external gestures, postures, and signs of penitence, which the Jews of his time, and in after ages, (Mat 6:16,) joined with their hypocritical fasts. And to spread sackcloth and ashes under him The Jews, to express their sorrow, made use of sackcloth and ashes two ways: 1st, Sometimes by putting sackcloth upon their bodies, as 1Ki 21:27; Psa 69:11; and casting ashes upon their heads, 2Sa 13:19 : and, 2d, By spreading sackcloth under them, and lying down upon ashes, Est 4:3; Job 2:8. The intent of putting on sackcloth was to afflict the body by its unpleasing harshness, and the ashes were meant to represent their own vileness, as being but dust and ashes; and their lying on them to signify that they abhorred and were ashamed of themselves. Wilt thou call this a fast? Canst thou, upon rational grounds, believe or suppose it to be so? Surely it has nothing in it but the lifeless form, empty shadow, or dumb signs of a fast: nothing of deep humiliation appearing in it, or real reformation proceeding from it. Not that the prophet blames them for afflicting themselves by these external rites, for these are elsewhere commanded of God; but that which he condemns is their hypocrisy in separating true humiliation from them, and contenting themselves with using these signs, while they stopped short of the thing signified by them. And an acceptable day to the Lord A day that God will approve of. Hebrew, , A day of acceptance, or that will turn to a good account on your behalf.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
58:4 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 {e} heard on high.
(e) So long as you use contention and oppression, your fasting and prayers will not be heard.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The spiritually insensitive Israelites did not consciously fast so they could be contentious and strive and beat each other up, but these were the results of their fasts. Fasting made them grouchy and belligerent, and they took these sinful feelings out on their neighbors. It would have been better for their neighbors if they had not fasted at all. These religious hypocrites were really fasting for reasons other than mourning over their sinfulness.