You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.
- NASB “Behold, you fast for contention and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you have done today to make your voice heard on high!
- NLT What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Their fasting fuels strife, contention, and violence, so it cannot reach heaven. Fasting joined to wrongdoing gains nothing from God.
Overview
God further rebukes a fasting that produces quarreling and blows rather than humility. Such self-focused religion will not make their voice heard on high. The verse teaches that outward acts of devotion are worthless when paired with sin against others, pressing the need for the inward renewal that the gospel brings through the Spirit.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 1 Kgs 21:9–13In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people.
- Prov 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!
- Matt 6:16–18When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
- Isa 59:2But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
- Phil 1:14–15And most of the brothers, confident in the Lord by my chains, now dare more greatly to speak the word without fear.
- Acts 23:1–2Paul looked directly at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have conducted myself before God in all good conscience to this day.”
- John 18:28Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
- Joel 2:13–14So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.
- Matt 23:13Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- Luke 20:47They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”
- Isa 59:6Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.
- Jonah 3:7Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 58:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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