Isaiah 58 - Introduction

An Oracle on Fasting and the Observance of the Sabbath

(1) The prophet announces his commission to expose the sin of his people, especially the formal and perfunctory character of their religious service (Isaiah 58:1). (2) He then takes up the question of fasting, which is the immediate occasion of the discourse; in answer to the complaint that their fasts are disregarded by Jehovah (Isaiah 58:3 a), he asks his hearers if they suppose that the kind of fasting practised by them can possibly be acceptable to God (Isaiah 58:3; Isaiah 58:3; Isaiah 58:3). (3) In contrast to such unspiritual and hypocritical fasting as theirs, he indicates the nature of the fast required by Jehovah, which consists in justice to the oppressed and kindness to the destitute (Isaiah 58:6). (4) When they understand what true religion is and comply with its requirements, their salvation shall no longer tarry, their prayers shall be answered, their darkness turned to light, and the waste places of the land restored (Isaiah 58:8). (5) A similar promise is attached to the hallowing of the Sabbath-day (Isaiah 58:13).

Although only one statutory fast is known to the Law that of the great Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29) the practice was readily and spontaneously resorted to in ancient Israel as a means of propitiating the Deity (cf. e.g. Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 7:6; 1 Kings 21:12; Jeremiah 36:9). During the Exile four regular fast-days came to be observed; and it is all but certain that these commemorated special incidents of the fall of Jerusalem (see the Commentaries on Zechariah 8:19). It is probable that such fasts as these, rather than the fast of the Day of Atonement (which may not have been instituted at this time), gave rise to the complaint dealt with in this prophecy. That the mind of the post-exilic community was exercised about these fasts appears from Zechariah 7:1 ff., a passage which presents an instructive parallel to that now before us. The question was put to the priests and prophets in Jerusalem whether the fast-days should not after seventy years" observance be discontinued (Isaiah 7:3; Isaiah 7:5); and Zechariah replies that if the people will give heed to the divine admonitions through the "former prophets" and practise righteousness and mercy, the Messianic promises shall be fulfilled, and then the fasts shall be turned into days of rejoicing (Isaiah 8:19). The answer, in short, is practically identical with the teaching of this chapter. It is of course not impossible that the question of fasting might have been raised during the Exile and answered as it is answered here; but there is nothing in the chapter that can be appealed to in favour of this view.