Isaiah 58:5

"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."

Key Reflection

This verse critiques fasting that is motivated by self-righteousness and conflict rather than genuine devotion. True fasting should seek God's favor and justice, not to elevate oneself or harm others through strife.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Is it such a fast that I have chosen? -Is this such a mode of fasting as I have appointed and as I approve? A day for a man to afflict his soul? -Margin, ‘To afflict his soul for a day.’ The reading in the text is the more correct; and the idea is, that the pain and inconvenience experienced by the abstinence from food was not the end in view in fasting. This seems to have been the mistake which they made, that they supposed there was something meritorious in the very pain incurred by such abstinence.

Related Verses

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