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On these special days when you do not eat, you argue and fight.
    You hit each other with your fists.
You cannot do these things as you do now
    and believe I will listen to your prayers.
This kind of special day is not what I want.
    This is not the way I want people to be sorry for what they have done.
I don’t want people just to bow their heads like a plant.
    I don’t want them to wear rough cloth and lie in ashes to show their sadness.
This is what you do on your special days when you do not eat.
    But do you think this is what the Lord wants?

“I will tell you the kind of special day I want.
I want you to free the people you have put in prison unfairly.
    Undo their chains.
Free those to whom you are unfair.
    Free them from their hard labor.

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Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,(A)
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard(B) on high.
Is this the kind of fast(C) I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble(D) themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed(E)
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?(F)
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the kind of fasting(G) I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice(H)
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed(I) free
    and break every yoke?(J)

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