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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
    and wear rough cloth and lie in ashes to show their sadness.
This is what you do on your special days when you fast,
    but do you think this is what the Lord wants?

“I will tell you the kind of fast I want:
Free the people you have put in prison unfairly
    and undo their chains.
Free those to whom you are unfair
    and stop their hard labor.
Share your food with the hungry
    and bring poor, homeless people into your own homes.
When you see someone who has no clothes, give him yours,
    and don’t refuse to help your own relatives.

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Is this the kind of fast(A) I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble(B) themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed(C)
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?(D)
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the kind of fasting(E) I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice(F)
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed(G) free
    and break every yoke?(H)
Is it not to share your food with the hungry(I)
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter(J)
when you see the naked, to clothe(K) them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?(L)

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