I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him

and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is

near, saith the Lord; And I will heal him.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea,

When it cannot rest,

Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

Cry aloud, spare not,
Lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
And shew my people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily,
And delight to know my ways,
As a nation that did righteousness,
And forsook not the ordinance of their God:
They ask of me the ordinances of justice;
They take delight in approaching to God.
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest
not?

Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou tak

est no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, And exact all your labours.

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.
Is it such a fast that I have chosen?
A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush,
And to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Wilt thou call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen?
To loose the bands of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
And to let the oppressed go free,
And that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
And that thou bring the poor that are cast out to
thy house?

When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; And that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning,
And thine health shall spring forth speedily:
And thy righteousness shall go before thee;
The glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer;
Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke,

The putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry,

And satisfy the afflicted soul;

Then shall thy light rise in obscurity,

And thy darkness be as the noon day:

And the Lord shall guide thee continually,

And satisfy thy soul in drought,

And make fat thy bones:

And thou shalt be like a watered garden,

And like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places:

Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations;

And thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach,

The restorer of paths to dwell in.

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath,

From doing thy pleasure on my holy day;

And call the sabbath a delight,

The holy of the Lord, honourable;

And shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways,

Nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine

own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places

of the earth,

And feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it

cannot save; Neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and

your God,

And your sins have hid his face from you, that he

will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: They trust in vanity, and speak lies; They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice' eggs, And weave the spider's web: He that eateth of their eggs dieth, And that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments, Neither shall they cover themselves with their

works:

Their works are works of iniquity,
And the act of violence is in their hands.
Their feet run to evil,

And they make haste to shed innocent blood:

Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

Wasting and destruction are in their paths.

The way of peace they know not;

And there is no judgment in their goings:

They have made them crooked paths:

Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

Therefore is judgment far from us,
Neither doth justice overtake us:
We wait for light, but behold obscurity;
For brightness, but we walk in darkness.
We grope for the wall like the blind,
And we grope as if we had no eyes:
We stumble at noon day as in the night;
We are in desolate places as dead men.
We roar all like bears,
And mourn sore like doves:
We look for judgment, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far off from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before thee,
And our sins testify against us:
For our transgressions are with us;
And as for our iniquities, we know them;
In transgressing and lying against the Lord,
And departing away from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of
falsehood.

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