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| 1 Call with the throat, restrain not, As a trumpet lift up thy voice, And declare to My people their transgression, And to the house of Jacob their sins; |
Cry aloud – Point out what the Scriptures have to say. R5630:5
Attacking errors of doctrine unsparingly, though in kindly terms. HG558:2
It is not now necessary or proper to cry aloud in the streets, or at the churches. R5631:3
Like a trumpet – Sound the trumpet of truth. R1476:5
Shew my people – Point out to Christendom of today their error as we have opportunity. R5630:3, R1158:1
But it would not be very well to go about berating them or anybody. R5630:3
These faithful reprovers are generally abused as enemies. R577:4; CR351:5
Their transgression – Their attitude calls for sympathy, pity and tender help over their misunderstandings rather than for abuse and cutting and lashing sarcasm. R1158:1
Calling attention to the fact that there is hypocrisy practiced in the name of religion. R5631:3
House of Jacob – A distinguishing term referring exclusively to the Jews, God's ancient covenant people. R5630:3
Point out to the Jews the reason w they are in their present cast off condition. R5630:3
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| 2 Seeing Me day by day they seek, And the knowledge of My ways they desire, As a nation that righteousness hath done, And the judgment of its God hath not forsaken, They ask of me judgments of righteousness, The drawing near of God they desire: |
Seek me daily – Apparently, but actually there is great zeal for the traditions of men. R5630:6
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| 3 'Why have we fasted, and Thou hast not seen We have afflicted our soul, and Thou knowest not.' Lo, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, And all your labours ye exact. |
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| 4 Lo, for strife and debate ye fast, And to smite with the fist of wickedness, Ye fast not as [to]-day, To sound in the high place your voice. |
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| 5 Like this is the fast that I choose The day of a man's afflicting his soul To bow as a reed his head, And sackcloth and ashes spread out This dost thou call a fast, And a desirable day to Jehovah |
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| 6 Is not this the fast that I chose To loose the bands of wickedness, To shake off the burdens of the yoke, And to send out the oppressed free, And every yoke ye draw off
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| 7 Is it not to deal to the hungry thy bread, And the mourning poor bring home, That thou seest the naked and cover him, And from thine own flesh hide not thyself |
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| 8 Then broken up as the dawn is thy light, And thy health in haste springeth up, Gone before thee hath thy righteousness, The honour of Jehovah doth gather thee. |
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| 9 Then thou callest, and Jehovah answereth, Thou criest, and He saith, 'Behold Me.' If thou turn aside from thy midst the yoke, The sending forth of the finger, And the speaking of vanity, |
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| 10 And dost bring out to the hungry thy soul, And the afflicted soul dost satisfy, Then risen in the darkness hath thy light, And thy thick darkness [is] as noon. |
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| 11 And Jehovah doth lead thee continually, And hath satisfied in drought thy soul, And thy bones He armeth, And thou hast been as a watered garden, And as an outlet of waters, whose waters lie not. |
Guide thee continually – Ask him to guide you; and, with no will of your own, no choice as to the pathway, trusting everything to God, silently waiting to hear his voice, it will be given you to know his will. R590:5*
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| 12 And they have built out of thee the wastes of old, The foundations of many generations thou raisest up, And one calleth thee, 'Repairer of the breach, Restorer of paths to rest in.' |
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| 13 If thou dost turn from the sabbath thy foot, Doing thine own pleasure on My holy day, And hast cried to the sabbath, 'A delight,' To the holy of Jehovah, 'Honoured,' And hast honoured it, without doing thine own ways, Without finding thine own pleasure, And speaking a word. |
Doing thy pleasure – Christian sabbath keeping is to refrain from doing our own ways, finding our own pleasures and speaking our own words--every day. HG583:5*
Thine own ways – That certain ways are our own ways should be no excuse for retaining them if they are not right. R705:3
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| 14 Then dost thou delight thyself on Jehovah, And I have caused thee to ride on high places of earth, And have caused thee to eat the inheritance of Jacob thy father, For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken! |
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