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1 | Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and
shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob
their sins. |
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2 | Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a
nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance
of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they
take delight in approaching to God. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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? |
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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? |
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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? |
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8 | Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine
health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness
shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy
rereward. |
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9 | Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt
cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the
midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and
speaking vanity; |
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10 | And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the
afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and
thy darkness be as the noon day: |
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11 | And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy
soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be
like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose
waters fail not. |
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12 | 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. |
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13 | If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy
pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the
holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing
thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking
thine own words: |
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14 | Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause
thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee
with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the
LORD hath spoken it. |
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