I say to Cyrus, "Thou art mine herdsman," so that he shall fulfill all things after my will. I say unto Jerusalem, "Be thou builded," and to the temple, "Be thou fast grounded."

It cometh on fast, it maketh haste to appear: It shall not perish, that it should not be able to destroy, neither shall it fail for fault of nourishing.

Make thy tent wider, and spread out the hangings of thine habitation: spare not, lay forth thy cords, and make fast thy stakes:

Behold when ye fast, ye can find your own lusts, and can call cruelly on all your debtors. Ye fast to law and strive and to smite with fist wickedly. Fast not as ye now do, to make your voice to be heard upon high.

Should it be such a manner of fast that I should chose? A day that a man should hurt his soul in? Or to bow down his head like a bulrush? Or to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Shouldest thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable unto the LORD?

Or is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? To loose wicked bonds, and to unbind bundles of oppression? And to let the bruised go free? And that ye should break all manner yokes?

For like as the new heaven and the new earth which I will make, shall be fast established by me, sayeth the LORD, So shall your seed and your name continue.