Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 58:3

"Wherefore have we fasted, [say they], and thou seest not? [wherefore] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find [your own] pleasure, and exact all your labors." — Isaiah 58:3 (ASV)

Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

They fasted, and then they said, "Why did not God accept our fasting?" Why, because they made their poor servants work to the very limit of their ability. They never gave them any rest.

They exacted all their labours, and they themselves, while they pretended to faint, were taking their pleasure.

Why have we fasted, they say, and you do not see?

Why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no notice?

They could not understand why they did not benefit from their religiousness.

They fasted, but they did not find themselves improved by it.

They afflicted their souls, yet they did not receive pardon for their sins, and they could not understand it. The Lord explained the mystery.

Behold, in the day of your fast you fled pleasure; and exact all your labors.

It is very easy to abstain from eating food of a certain kind, yet you can make another kind of food just as palatable; and while you yourself are resting, you may be compelling others to work for you.

What is this but hypocrisy? I think it is a common saying among the Arabs and Egyptians, when a man is very ill-tempered, "One would think that he was keeping a fast," because it often happens in long fasts that men grow irritable; what is the good of fasting when that is the only result?

Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?

wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?

When God rejects a man's religion, what must be the reason of it? Here is the explanation.

Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

"You fast, but you make your workmen toil on still; you determine that they shall not have one atom of their labour abated; and you make an amusement of what you call a fast: 'In the day of your fast ye find pleasure.'"