Isaiah 58:4
New International Version
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

New Living Translation
What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.

English Standard Version
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.

Berean Standard Bible
You 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.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.

New American Standard Bible
“Behold, you fast for contention and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you have done today to make your voice heard on high!

NASB 1995
“Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.

NASB 1977
“Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.

Legacy Standard Bible
Behold, you fast for contention and quarreling and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.

Amplified Bible
“The facts are that you fast only for strife and brawling and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You do not fast as you do today to make your voice heard on high.

Christian Standard Bible
You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high.

American Standard Version
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.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Behold, for strife and for contention you are fasting and to strike in the force of evil. You shall not fast like today and make your voice heard in high places

Brenton Septuagint Translation
If ye fast for quarrels and strifes, and smite the lowly with your fists, wherefore do ye fast to me as ye do this day, so that your voice may be heard in crying?

Contemporary English Version
You even get angry and ready to fight. No wonder God won't listen to your prayers!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold you fast for debates and strife. and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.

English Revised Version
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.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Don't you see that when you fast, you quarrel and fight and beat your workers? The way you fast today keeps you from being heard in heaven.

Good News Translation
Your fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and fight. Do you think this kind of fasting will make me listen to your prayers?

International Standard Version
"Look! You fast only for quarreling, and for fighting, and for hitting with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice heard on high.

JPS Tanakh 1917
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.

Literal Standard Version
Behold, you fast for strife and debate, | And to strike with the fist of wickedness, | You do not fast as [this] day, | To sound your voice in the high place.

Majority Standard Bible
You 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.

New American Bible
See, you fast only to quarrel and fight and to strike with a wicked fist! Do not fast as you do today to make your voice heard on high!

NET Bible
Look, your fasting is accompanied by arguments, brawls, and fistfights. Do not fast as you do today, trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

New Revised Standard Version
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.

New Heart English Bible
Look, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you do not fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

Young's Literal Translation
Lo, for strife and debate ye fast, And to smite with the fist of wickedness, Ye fast not as to -day, To sound in the high place your voice.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
True Fasts and Sabbaths
3“Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers. 4 You 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. 5Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?…

Cross References
1 Kings 21:12
They proclaimed a fast and gave Naboth a seat of honor among the people.

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.

Isaiah 3:14
The LORD brings this charge against the elders and leaders of His people: "You have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

Isaiah 3:15
Why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?" declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

Isaiah 59:2
But 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.

Isaiah 59:6
Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.

Joel 2:12
"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning."


Treasury of Scripture

Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

ye fast

1 Kings 21:9-13
And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people: …

Proverbs 21:27
The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?

Matthew 6:16
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

and to smite

Acts 23:1,2
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day…

Philippians 1:14,15
And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear…

shall not fast as ye do this day.

Joel 2:13,14
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil…

Jonah 3:7
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

Matthew 6:16-18
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward…

Jump to Previous
Angry Blows Contention Debate Ends Evil Expect Fast Fasting Fight Fighting Fist Fists Food Hands Heard High Hit Holy Keeping Make Makes Quarrel Quickly Ready Smite Strife Strike Striking Today Voice Wicked Wickedness
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Angry Blows Contention Debate Ends Evil Expect Fast Fasting Fight Fighting Fist Fists Food Hands Heard High Hit Holy Keeping Make Makes Quarrel Quickly Ready Smite Strife Strike Striking Today Voice Wicked Wickedness
Isaiah 58
1. The prophet, being sent to reprove hypocrisy,
3. shows the difference between a counterfeit fast and a true
8. He declares what promises are due unto godliness
13. And to the keeping of the Sabbath














(4) Behold, ye fast for strife and debate.--The words possibly point to the psychological fact that an unspiritual fasting irritates the nerves and embitters the temper. Extremes meet, and the disputes of fasting controversialists are often as fierce as those of drunken disputants. (Comp. the conspiracy of Acts 23:21.)

Verse 4. - Ye fast for strife and debate. Delitzsch explains, "When fasting, they are doubly irritable and ill tempered; and this leads to quarrelling and strife, even to striking with angry fists." This is quite a possible explanation. Or there may have been two parties, one for, the other against, fasting; and those who practised fasting may have done it, as some preached Christ, "of envy and strife" (Philippians 1:15) - to provoke the opposite side. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high; i.e. "ye must not fast as ye do at present, if ye would have your voices heard in heaven." God will not hear the prayer of which such a fast is the accompaniment.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
You fast
תָּצ֔וּמוּ (tā·ṣū·mū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural
Strong's 6684: To abstain from food, fast

with contention
לְרִ֤יב (lə·rîḇ)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7379: Strife, dispute

and strife
וּמַצָּה֙ (ū·maṣ·ṣāh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4683: Strife, contention

to strike
וּלְהַכּ֖וֹת (ū·lə·hak·kō·wṯ)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive construct
Strong's 5221: To strike

viciously
רֶ֑שַׁע (re·ša‘)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7562: Wickedness

with your fist.
בְּאֶגְרֹ֣ף (bə·’eḡ·rōp̄)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 106: The clenched hand

You cannot
לֹא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

fast
תָצ֣וּמוּ (ṯā·ṣū·mū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural
Strong's 6684: To abstain from food, fast

as you do today
כַיּ֔וֹם (ḵay·yō·wm)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3117: A day

and have your voice
קוֹלְכֶֽם׃ (qō·wl·ḵem)
Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 6963: A voice, sound

be heard
לְהַשְׁמִ֥יעַ (lə·haš·mî·a‘)
Preposition-l | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive construct
Strong's 8085: To hear intelligently

on high.
בַּמָּר֖וֹם (bam·mā·rō·wm)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4791: Altitude


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OT Prophets: Isaiah 58:4 Behold you fast for strife and contention (Isa Isi Is)
Isaiah 58:3
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