John Gill Commentary Isaiah 58

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet
These words are directed to the prophet; and so the Targum expresses it, ``O prophet, cry with your throat;'' and so it is in the original, "cry with the throat" ^F4 , which is an instrument of speech; and it denotes a loud, strong, vehement cry, when a man exerts his voice, and as it were rends his throat, that he may be heard; as well as it shows the intenseness of his spirit, and the vehemence of his affections, and the importance of what he delivers; and this the prophet is encouraged to do, and "spare not", the voice, throat, or his lungs, nor the people neither he was sent to; or, "cease not", as the Targum, refrain not from speaking, "cease not crying"; so Ben Melech: "lift up your voice like a trumpet"; like the voice or sound of a trumpet, which is heard afar, and gives an alarm; and to which the Gospel ministry is sometimes compared, (Isaiah 27:13) all which shows the manner in which the ministers of the word should deliver it, publicly, boldly, with ardour and affection; and also the deafness and stupidity of the people which require it:

and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their
sins ;
by whom are meant the professing people of God, the present reformed churches, as distinguished from the antichristian ones, spoken of in the preceding chapter; who yet are guilty of many sins and transgressions, which must be showed them, and they must be sharply reproved for; and particularly their coldness and deadness, formality and hypocrisy in religious worship; their "works not being perfect" before God, or sincere and upright, as is said of the Sardian church, which designs the same persons, (Revelation 3:1Revelation 3:2) .

In the Talmud ^F5 the words are thus paraphrased, "show my people their transgression"; these are the disciples of the wise men, whose sins of error or ignorance become to them presumptuous ones; "and the house of Jacob their sins"; these are the people of the earth, or the common people, whose presumptuous sins become to them as sins of ignorance.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: (Nwrgb arq) "clama in gutture", Pagninus, Montanus; "exclama gutture", Junius & Tremellius; "exclama pleno gutture", Piscator; "clama pleno gut ture", Cocceius.
• F5: T. Bab. Metzia, fol. 33. 2.

Yet they seek me daily
Which may be considered as an acknowledgment of their external piety; or as a caution to the prophet not to be imposed upon by outward appearances; or as a reason why they should be rebuked sharply: they sought the Lord, either by prayer, or in the ministry of the word; they sought doctrine, as the Targum; they sought him, and that every day, or, however, every Lord's day; and yet they did not seek him with that diligence and intenseness of spirit, with their whole hearts, cordially and sincerely, as they ought to have done; they sought themselves, and the honour of men, rather than the Lord and his glory:

and delight to know my ways ;
not only his ways of creation and providence, but of grace; and also the ways which he prescribes and directs his people to walk in; not that they had a real delight in them, or in the knowledge of them, or such a delight as truly gracious souls have when they have the presence of God in them; are assisted by his Spirit; have their hearts enlarged with his love; find food for their souls, and have fellowship with the saints; but this delight was only seeming, and at most only in the knowledge and theory of these ways, but not in the practice of them; see (Ezekiel 33:31Ezekiel 33:32) :

as a nation that did righteousness ;
in general appeared to be outwardly righteous; had a form of godliness, and name to live, and yet dead, and so destitute of any works of true righteousness, at best only going about to establish a righteousness of their own:

and forsook not the ordinance of their God ;
the ordinance of assembling together in general; any of the ordinances of God in particular; hearing, reading, singing, praying, especially the ordinance of the supper, constantly attended to by them; see (Luke 13:26) :

they ask of me the ordinances of justice ;
not of justice between man and man, but of righteousness and religion with respect to God; they ask what are the ordinances of the Gospel, and the rules of worship and discipline, and whether there are any they are ignorant of; suggesting they were desirous of being instructed in them, and of complying with them:

they take delight in approaching to God ;
there is no right approaching God but through Christ, and gracious souls take a real delight in this way; but the approaching here is only in an external manner, by the performance of outward duties; and the delight is not in God, and communion with him; but in the service, performed as a work of their own, in which they trust, and in what they expect as the reward of it.

Why have we fasted, say they, and you do not see ?&c.] Our fasting; take no notice of it; expresses no approbation of it, and pleasure in it: this is putfor all religious services, being what was frequently performed under the Old Testament, not only at certaintimes appointed by the Lord, but on other occasions, and of their own fixing; in which they put theirconfidence, and often boasted of, (Luke 18:12) : "why have we afflicted our soul", by fasting, "andyou take no knowledge?" of that, nor of us, and do not save us from our enemies, and deliver us from ourtroubles, and bestow favours on us: they had a high opinion of their own performances, and thought that Godmust have likewise; and were displeased that he showed no more regard to them:

behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure ;this, and what follows in the two next verses, are an answer to their questions, and give reasons why theLord took no more notice of their fasting, or of their services; because they were not done aright, theyfound their own pleasure in them; not that they indulged to bodily recreations and carnal delights, but theygratified the inward desires of the flesh, malice, envy, and the like; and they pleased themselves with theirown duties, and fancied they procured the favour of God by them:

and exact all your labours ;of their servants, or their money of their debtors; they grieved and afflicted their debtors, by demandingtheir debts of them, as Jarchi interprets it; and that in a very rigorous manner, requiring whole andimmediate payment; or, as it is usual with establishments, they require an exact conformity to their mannerof service, worship, and discipline.

Behold, you fast for strife and debate Brawling with their servants for not doing work enough; or quarrelling with their debtors for not paying their debts; or the main of their religion lay in contentions and strifes about words, vain hot disputations about rites and ceremonies in worship, as is well known to have been the case of the reformed churches:

and to smite with the fist of wickedness ; their servants or their debtors; or rather it may design the persecution of such whose consciences would not suffer them to receive the doctrines professed; or submit to ordinances as administered; or comply with rites and ceremonies enjoined by the said churches; for which they have smitten their brethren that dissented from them with the fist, or have persecuted them in a violent manner by imprisonment, confiscation of goods; all which is no other than a fist of wickedness, and highly displeasing to God, and renders all their services unacceptable in his sight; see (Matthew 24:49) :

you shall not fast as you do this day ; or, "as this day"; after this manner; this is not right:

to make your voice to be heard on high ; referring either to their noisy threatening of their servants for not doing their work; or their clamorous demands upon their debtors; or to their loud prayers, joined with their fasting, which they expected to be heard in the highest heaven, but would be mistaken; for such services, attended with the above evils, are not wellpleasing to God.

Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? &c.] That is, can this be thought to be a fast approved of by me, and acceptable to me, before described, and is as follows:

a day for a man to afflict his soul ? only to appoint a certain day, and keep that, by abstaining from bodily food, and so for a short time afflict himself; or only after this manner to afflict himself, and not humble himself for his sins, and abstain from them, and do the duties of justice and charity incumbent on him:

is it to bow down his head as a bulrush ; when it is moved with the wind, or bruised, or withered; as if he was greatly depressed and humbled, and very penitent and sorrowful. The Syriac version renders it, "as a hook"; like a fish hook, which is very much bent; so Jarchi interprets the word:

and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him ? which were ceremonies used in times of mourning and fasting; sometimes sackcloth was put on their loins, and ashes on their heads; and sometimes these were strewed under them, and they laid down upon their sackcloth, which, being coarse, was uneasy to them, and rolled themselves in ashes, as expressive of their meanness and vileness:

will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord ? does this deserve the name of a fast? or can it be imagined that such a day so spent, can be agreeable to God? that such persons and services will be accepted of by him? or that hereby sin is atoned for, and God is well pleased, and will show his favour and good will, and have respect to such worshippers of him? no, surely.