3 "Didn’t you see that we fasted?" they ask. "Didn’t you notice how we denied ourselves?"

That’s because whenever you fast you still do whatever you want, and you treat your workers badly. 4 Can’t you see that when you’re fasting you quarrel and argue, and end up having a vicious fistfight? When you fast like this you can’t expect your prayers to be heard on high! 5 Is this the kind of fast I want when people act out their humility by bowing their heads down like a reed and by lying around in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day the Lord appreciates? 6 No, this is the fast I want: set free those who have been unjustly imprisoned, untie the cords of the yoke used to burden people, set free those who are oppressed, and get rid of every form of abuse.