Isaiah 58:6

Is not this the fast that I have chosen?.... Which God has appointed, he approves of, and is well pleasing in his sight; these are works and services more agreeable to him, which follow, without

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? or, approve, as before, : or, Ought not such a fast to be accompanied with such things as these? where he is now about to show the concomitants of a true fast, with reference to the thing in hand, namely, to exercise works of charity, consisting partly in acts of self-denial, in this verse, and partly in doing good to those in distress, in the next. In this verse he instanceth in some particulars, and closeth with a general. The bands of wickedness, viz. the cruel obligations of usury and oppression. The heavy burdens, Heb. bundles; a metaphor possibly pointing at those many bundles of writings, as bills, bonds, mortgages, and acknowledgments, which the usurers had lying by them: The former may relate to unjust and unlawful obligations extorted by force or fear, which he would have cancelled; this latter to just debts contracted through poverty and necessity, the rigour whereof he would have abated, whether.by reason of loans upon too hard conditions, called a drawing them into a net, , and so much is implied, ; or under too hard circumstances, whether they were loans of food or money, of which the people so bitterly complained, , and is expressly forbid, . For debts may be called burdens, 1. Because they lie as a great load upon the debtor’ s spirits, under which whoever can walk up and down easily doth not so much excel in fortitude as in folly. 2. Because they usually introduce poverty, slavery, imprisonment, &c. The oppressed; either in a large sense, viz. any ways grieved or vexed, whether by the gripings of usury, or the bondage of slavery accompanied with cruel usage; or more peculiarly (according to some) relating to their being confined and shut up in prisons, which latter sense the word free may possibly seem to favour, the former being comprised in that general expression that follows of breaking every yoke. Heb. broken, i.e. like a bruised reed, so crushed and weakened, that they have no consistency or ability, either to satisfy their creditors, or support themselves; and we usually call such insolvent persons broken that cannot look upon themselves to be sui juris, but wholly at another’ s mercy: you have the same kind of oppression, and the same words used, . That ye break every yoke, namely, that is grievous, a metaphor; i.e. free them from all sorts of vexation, whatever it is that held them under any bondage. The LXX. refer it to bonds and writings; but it seems more general: the word properly signifies that stick or cord that holds both ends of the yoke, that it spring not out, or fall off from the neck on which it is laid, , where the same word is used for staves; and called the bands of the yoke, , I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright; the same thing that God would have them do here.

Isaiah 58:6 [Is] not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?Ver. 6. Is not this the fast that I have chosen?] There is a threefold fast, from meat, mirth, sin; this last crowns both the former, and yet we say not (as the Papists falsely say we hold) that fasting is no more but a moral temperance, a fasting from sin, a matter of policy. To loose the bands of wickedness,] i.e., Iuramentum, literariam cautionem, vincula, carceres, servitutem; the unjust bonds and obligations of usurers and oppressors, whereby poor non-solvents were imprisoned or embondaged. These are also here further called "heavy burdens" and "yokes," as elsewhere "nets"; that is, saith Chrysostom, bonds, debts, mortgages. And to let the oppressed go free.] Heb., The bruised or broken, scil., in their estates. And that ye break every yoke.] Cancel every unjust writing, say the Septuagint. They took twelve in the hundred in Nehemiah’ s time; this was a yoke intolerable. "I pray you let us leave off this usury," saith he. At this day the Jews are in all places permitted to strain up their usury to eighteen in the hundred upon the Christians; but then they are used, as the friars, to suck from the meanest, and to be sucked by the greatest. Specul. Europ.

(6) To loose the bands of wickedness.—The words do not exclude abstinence from food as an act of discipline and victory over self-indulgence, but declare its insufficiency by itself. So in the practice of the ancient Church fasting and almsgiving were closely connected, as indeed they are in Matthew 6:1; Matthew 6:16. The history of the emancipation of the slaves and of their subsequent return to bondage presents a curious illustration of the prophet’s words (Jeremiah 34:8-22). The truth which he proclaimed was recognised in the hour of danger and forgotten in that of safety. Comp. Joe 2:13. To undo the heavy burdens.—Literally, the thongs of the yoke, the leather straps which fastened the yoke on the head of the oxen as they ploughed. Again we trace an echo of the thought and almost of the phraseology in our Lord’s teaching (Matthew 11:29-30; Matthew 23:4). The Pharisees who fasted laid heavy burdens on men’s shoulders. He, who was thought not to fast, relieved them of their two-fold yoke of evil selfishness and ceremonial formalism.

Verse 6. Let the oppressed go free] How can any nation pretend to fast or worship God at all, or dare to profess that they believe in the existence of such a Being, while they carry on the slave trade, and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies, of men! O ye most flagitious of knaves, and worst of hypocrites, cast off at once the mask of religion; and deepen not your endless perdition by professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while ye continue in this traffic!

6, 7. Description of the true fast in which Jehovah delights. The duties enjoined fall under two heads: (1) abstinence from every form of oppression (Isaiah 58:6), and (2) the exercise of positive beneficence towards the destitute (Isaiah 58:7). In naming these things as the moral essence of fasting, the prophet may be guided by the principle so often inculcated by our Lord, that he who would obtain mercy from God must shew a merciful disposition towards his fellow-men (Matthew 5:7; Matthew 6:12; Matthew 18:35 &c.). Or the idea may be that the spirit of self-denial possesses no value before God unless it be carried into the sphere of social duty. the bands (R.V. bonds) of wickedness] i.e. unjust and oppressive obligations. to undo the heavy burdens] Lit. to untie the Bands of the yoke. the oppressed is literally the “broken” (Deuteronomy 28:33; ch. Isaiah 42:3),—bankrupts, whose liberty had been forfeited to their creditors (cf. Nehemiah 5:5).

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? - Fasting is right and proper; but that which God approves will prompt to, and will be followed by, deeds of justice, kindness, charity.

5-7. Is it such a fast — That is, the one chosen fast which I have appointed through my servant Moses? Only the fast connected with the day of atonement had been thus duly appointed.