Isaiah 58:1
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
Study Note
Study Note
God's commission to Isaiah to 'cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression' frames the critique of false fasting in Isaiah 58 as an act of prophetic courage demanded by divine commission. The chapter proceeds to expose the contradiction between elaborate religious observance and the exploitation of workers — fasting that accompanies oppression is 'not the fast that I have chosen' (verse 6). The alternative fast — loosing the bands of wickedness, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, housing the poor — radically moralises religious practice in a way that Jesus echoes in Matthew 25:35-36 and James in James 1:27. The trumpet image links to Ezekiel 33's watchman theology: the prophet who fails to warn shares in the community's bloodguilt.
Other Translations
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
Call with the throat, restrain not, As a trumpet lift up thy voice, And declare to My people their transgression, And to the house of Jacob their sins;
Make a loud cry, do not be quiet, let your voice be sounding like a horn, and make clear to my people their evil doings, and to the family of Jacob their sins.
Cross References
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not …
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come …
The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof …
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift …
Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is …
His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving …
But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I …
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull …
Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed …