Isaiah 58-59

New Catholic Bible

¹ Shout loudly, without holding back.
    Lift up your voice like a trumpet.
Proclaim to my people their wicked deeds,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
² Yet they search for me day after day
    in their desire to know my ways,
as if they are a nation that adheres to righteousness
    and has not abandoned the law of their God.
They request that I make righteous judgments,
    and they long to be near God.
³ They ask, “Why should we fast
    when you do not even notice?
Why should we mortify ourselves
    when you pay no heed?”
The truth is that on your fast days
    you serve your own interests
    and oppress all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting only leads to quarrels and fights
    and lashing out with vicious blows.
Such fasting as you currently practice
    will not make your voice heard on high.
⁵ Is this the type of fast that pleases me,
    a day for a man to humble himself,
to bow his head like a reed
    and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Is this what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?
⁶ This rather is the type of fast that I wish:
    to loosen the fetters of injustice,
    to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to set free those who are oppressed
    and to break every yoke,
⁷ to share your bread with the hungry
    and to offer shelter to the homeless poor,
to clothe the naked when you behold them
    and not turn your back on your own kin.
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your wound will quickly be healed;
your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then, when you call, the Lord will answer;
    you will cry out for help,
    and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you cease to tolerate the yoke of oppression,
    the pointing of fingers^[a] and malicious words,
¹⁰ if you offer your food to the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like midday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you continually
    and satisfy your needs in the barren desert.
He will strengthen your limbs,
    and you will be like a watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never run dry.
¹² Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt,
    constructed on foundations from generations past.
You will be called the rebuilder of broken walls
    and the restorer of ruined streets and dwellings.
¹³ If you refrain from traveling on the Sabbath
    and from engaging in your own interests on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a day of joy
    and regard the Lord’s holy day as honorable,
if you honor it by not going your own way,
    serving your own interests,
    or attending to your own affairs;
¹⁴ then you will find true happiness in the Lord,
    and I will enable you to ride
    upon the heights of the earth.
I will nourish you with the heritage of your father Jacob,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

¹ Truly the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
    nor is his ear too dull to hear.
² Rather, it is your iniquities that have been barriers
    between you and your God.
Your sins have caused him to hide his face
    so that he does not hear you.
³ For your hands are stained with blood
    and your fingers with guilt.
Your lips utter lies
    and your tongue mutters wicked things.
⁴ No one brings a suit justly
    or pleads honestly in court.
They all rely on empty words and utter lies;
    they conceive mischief and bring forth evil.
⁵ They hatch adders’ eggs
    and weave the spider’s web;
whoever eats their eggs will die;
    crush one and a viper emerges.
⁶ Their webs are useless for clothing;
    what they make cannot serve to cover them.
Their works are deeds of evil,
    and acts of violence flow from their hands.
⁷ Their feet rush headlong to do evil,
    and they do not hesitate to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are those of iniquity;
    their paths are marked by havoc and ruin.
⁸ They do not know the way of peace,
    and justice is not seen along their paths.
The roads they follow are crooked,
    and no one who travels on them knows any peace.
⁹ Therefore, justice is far removed from us,
    and righteousness is far beyond our reach.
We look for light but behold only darkness,
    for brightness but we walk in gloom.
¹⁰ Like blind men we grope along a wall,
    feeling our way like those bereft of eyes.
We stumble at noon as if it were twilight;
    in the midst of the strong we are like the dead.
¹¹ All of us growl like bears;
    like doves we continue to moan mournfully.
We wait for justice but receive none,
    for deliverance but it is far from us.
¹² For our transgressions against you are numerous,
    and our sins bear witness against us.
We are unable to forget our offenses,
    and we are well aware of our iniquities:
¹³ our rebellion and our denial of the Lord
    and our turning away from following him,
threatening acts of oppression and revolt,
    and uttering lies conceived in our hearts.
¹⁴ Justice has been rebuffed
    and righteousness stands at a distance.
For truth stumbles in the public square
    and uprightness cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth has disappeared,
    and those who turn from evil are terrorized.

When the Lord witnessed this, he was displeased
    that justice had ceased to exist.
¹⁶ He saw that no help was in sight,
    and he was outraged that no one sought to intervene.
Therefore, his own arm effected the victory,
    with his righteousness as his support.
¹⁷ He put on justice like a breastplate
    and a helmet of salvation on his head.
He clothed himself with garments of vengeance
    and wrapped himself in a cloak of zeal.
¹⁸ He will repay his enemies
    according to their deeds:
wrath to his adversaries,
    retribution to his enemies;
he will render requital
    to the islands and the coastlands.
¹⁹ And so those in the west will fear the name of the Lord,
    and those in the east his glory.
He will come like a pent-up stream
    that is driven by the breath of the Lord.
²⁰ He will come as a redeemer to Zion,
    and to those in Jacob who cease to rebel.
    This is the word of the Lord.
²¹ As for me, says the Lord,
    this is my covenant with them:
my Spirit which rests upon you
    and my words that I have put into your mouth
will not depart from your mouth
    or out of the mouths of your children,
or out of the mouths of your children’s children,
    says the Lord, from now on and forevermore.