Isaiah 58:4
in Isaiah 58You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Isaiah 58
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Vers. 4, 5.) Do not fast as you do to this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? LXX: Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'
This site's exposition
Why have we fasted, and You have not seen?
on Isaiah 58:3-5
The people ask why God has not seen their fasting, keeping the ritual and expecting the ritual to move God. The answer exposes the fast: “you oppress all your workers”, and they fast “with contention and strife”. Verse 5 asks whether bowing “his head like a reed” is the fast.
This site's exposition
You cannot fast as you do today
Henry recalls the fast Jezebel proclaimed in 1 Kings 21, where Naboth was falsely accused on a day of humbling. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown take on high as heaven itself, and name strife as the aim of such a fast. Clarke follows the Septuagint, where the fist strikes the poor.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Also, the fault of vanity, do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard, for the sake of the praise of men: but you when you shall pray, enter into your chamber, and having shut the door, …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
): Behold, you fast for strife and debate. When they proclaimed a fast to deprecate God's judgments, they pretended to search for those sins which provoked God to threaten them with his judgments, and under that pretence perhaps particular persons were falsely accused, as Naboth in the day of Jezebel's fast, 1 Kings xxi.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Behold - Your fasting days, wherein you ought in a special manner to implore the mercy of God, and to shew compassion to men, you employ in injuring or quarrelling with your brethren, your servants or debtors, or in contriving mischief against them.
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Ye fast for strife and debate - How often is this the case! A whole nation are called to fast to implore God’s blessing on wars carried on for the purposes of wrath and ambition. To smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day “To smite with the fist the poor. Wherefore fast ye unto me in this manner” - I follow the version of the Septuagint, which gives a much better sense than the present reading of the Hebrew.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
ye shall not fast--rather, "ye do not fast at this time, so as to make your voice to be heard on high," that is, in heaven; your aim in fasting is strife, not to gain the ear of God [MAURER] (1Ki 21:9, 12, 13). In English Version the sense is, If you wish acceptance with God, ye must not fast as ye now do, to make your voice heard high in strife.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate - This is a third characteristic of their manner of fasting, and a third reason why God did not regard and accept it. They were divided into parties and factions, and probably made their fastings an occasion of augmented contention and strife. How often has this been seen! Contending denominations of Christians fast, not laying aside their strifes; contending factions in the church fast in order to strengthen their party with the solemn sanctions of religion. One of the most certain ways for bigots to excite persecution against those who are opposed to them is to ‘proclaim a fast;’ and when together, their passions are easily inflamed, their flagging zeal excited by inflammatory harangues, and their purpose formed to regard and treat their dissentient brethren as incorrigible heretics and irreconcilable foes. It may be added, also, that it is possible thus to prostitute all the sacred institutions of religion for party and inflammatory purposes. Even the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper may be thus abused, and violent partisans may come around the sacred memorials of a Saviour’s body and blood, to bind themselves more closely together in some deed of persecution or violence, and to animate their drooping courage with the belief that what has been in fact commenced with a view to power, is carried on from a regard to the honor of God. And to smite with the fist of wickedness - Lowth renders this, in accordance with the Septuagint. ‘To smite with the fist the poor;’ but this translation can be obtained only by a most violent and wholly unauthorized change in the Hebrew text. The idea is plain, that ‘even when fasting’ they were guilty of strife and personal combats. Their passions were unsubdued, and they gave vent to them in disgraceful personal encounters. […]
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֵ֣ן | hen | there! | H2005 → | 316 times |
| לְרִ֤יב | leriv | for strife | H7379 → | 61 times |
| וּמַצָּה֙ | umatzah | and contention | H4683 → | |
| תָּצ֔וּמוּ | tatzumu | you fast | H6684 → | 21 times |
| וּלְהַכּ֖וֹת | ulehakot | and to strike | H5221 → | 499 times |
| בְּאֶגְרֹ֣ף | beegrof | with a fist of | H106 → | |
| רֶ֑שַׁע | resha' | wickedness | H7562 → | |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תָצ֣וּמוּ | tatzumu | you fast | H6684 → | 21 times |
| כַיּ֔וֹם | khaiyom | like <the> this day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| לְהַשְׁמִ֥יעַ | lehashmia' | to make heard | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| בַּמָּר֖וֹם | bamarom | in the height[s] | H4791 → | 54 times |
| קוֹלְכֶֽם׃ | kolkhem | voice your | H6963 → | 506 times |
הֵ֣ןthere!
henH2005 →316 times
לְרִ֤יבfor strife
lerivH7379 →61 times
וּמַצָּה֙and contention
umatzahH4683 →
תָּצ֔וּמוּyou fast
tatzumuH6684 →21 times
וּלְהַכּ֖וֹתand to strike
ulehakotH5221 →499 times
בְּאֶגְרֹ֣ףwith a fist of
beegrofH106 →
רֶ֑שַׁעwickedness
resha'H7562 →
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
תָצ֣וּמוּyou fast
tatzumuH6684 →21 times
כַיּ֔וֹםlike <the> this day
khaiyomH3117 →2304 times
לְהַשְׁמִ֥יעַto make heard
lehashmia'H8085 →1159 times
בַּמָּר֖וֹםin the height[s]
bamaromH4791 →54 times
קוֹלְכֶֽם׃voice your
kolkhemH6963 →506 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 59:2But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
it leads to
- Proverbs 15:29
The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.
- Jeremiah 5:25
Your iniquities have diverted these from you; your sins have deprived you of My bounty.
- Micah 3:4
Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
- Isaiah 1:15
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
- Deuteronomy 31:17–18
On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them.…
- Proverbs 15:29
Through
Proverbs 21:27The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!
it leads to
- Isaiah 66:3
Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s…
- Matthew 23:13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- Proverbs 15:8
The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
- Isaiah 66:3
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.