Isaiah 58:3

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

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.

Have we fasted

Luke 18:9

Afflicted

Leviticus 16:29

Leviticus 23:27

Psalm 69:10

Exact

Labours

Isaiah 47:6

Exodus 2:23

General references

Isaiah 57:12

James 1:7

Bible References

Have we fasted

Now God met Balaam, who said to Him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”

Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who hate and reject justice
And twist everything that is straight,

“Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years [that you were in exile], was it actually for Me that you fasted?

You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. What profit is it if we keep His ordinances, and walk around like mourners before the Lord of hosts?

When they received it, they protested and grumbled at the owner of the estate,

But he said to his father, ‘Look! These many years I have served you, and I have never neglected or disobeyed your command. Yet you have never given me [so much as] a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;

He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves and were confident that they were righteous [posing outwardly as upright and in right standing with God], and who viewed others with contempt:

Afflicted

“This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month (nearly October) on the tenth day of the month you shall humble yourselves [by fasting] and not do any work, whether the native-born or the stranger who lives temporarily among you;

“Also the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble yourselves [by fasting] and present an offering by fire to the Lord.

When I wept and humbled myself with fasting,
It became my reproach.

Exact

I thought it over and then challenged the nobles and the rulers. I said to them, “You are exacting usury (excessive interest) from your own brother (relative).” So I held a great assembly to confront them.

He who turns his ear away from listening to the law [of God and man],
Even his prayer is repulsive [to God].

that every man should let his Hebrew slaves, male and female, go free, so that no one should make a slave of a Jew, his brother.

But that same slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began choking him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe!’

Labours

“I was angry with My people,
I profaned [Judah] My inheritance
And gave them into your hand [Babylon].
You showed them no mercy;
You made your yoke very heavy on the aged.

Now it happened after a long time [about forty years] that the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel (Jacob) groaned and sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out. And their cry for help because of their bondage ascended to God.

General references

“I will declare your [hypocritical] righteousness and your deeds,
But they will not benefit you.

For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord,