3 Why have we fasted, [they say], and thou dost not see? [why] have we afflicted our soul, and thou dost take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find [your own] pleasure and exact your own estates.
4 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.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? [is it] to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes [under him]? wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 [Is] not rather the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the ties of oppression, to release [into freedom] those who are broken, and that ye break every yoke?