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| 1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto 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 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near unto God. |
Seek me daily – Apparently, but actually there is great zeal for the traditions of men. R5630:6
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| 3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact all your labors. |
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| 4 Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. |
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| 5 Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah? |
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| 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? |
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| 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? |
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| 8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearward. |
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| 9 Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly; |
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| 10 and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noon-day; |
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| 11 and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail 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 that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. |
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| 13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: |
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 shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it. |
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