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?
Isaiah was a prophet in ancient Israel around 700 BC. In this chapter, God delivers a sharp critique to people who were fasting and praying — performing sincere religious rituals — while simultaneously oppressing their workers, ignoring the poor, and quarreling with each other. A "yoke" was a wooden beam strapped across the necks of oxen to harness them for work — it became the central metaphor for economic, political, and social oppression in the ancient world. God, speaking through Isaiah, redefines what genuine worship looks like: not the discipline of skipping meals, but the active work of dismantling injustice and restoring dignity to those who have been crushed.
God, forgive me for the times I've practiced religion without letting it reach the person right in front of me. Open my eyes to the yokes I've walked past or quietly helped tighten. Show me what it looks like to worship you in a way that actually sets someone free. Amen.
Imagine going through every motion of sincere worship — attending services, fasting, giving money — and on Monday morning treating the person who serves your coffee like they are invisible, or staying quietly complicit in a workplace policy that grinds people down. That's the specific disconnect Isaiah is naming. The people he addresses weren't cynical about their religion — they took their fasting seriously. But God reframes the whole conversation: true worship isn't just self-discipline pointed inward. It's liberation pointed outward. He's not against fasting — he's against fasting that doesn't change how you treat the person standing in front of you with a yoke around their neck. This verse has the power to unsettle tidy categories. Many of us have learned to keep faith personal and quiet, separate from what we might call difficult social territory. But here, God refuses that divide. Breaking a yoke is an act of worship. The question this puts directly to you is both personal and uncomfortable: where do the people in your orbit carry burdens that you have even partial power to loosen? This might mean advocating for something structural, or it might mean paying someone fairly and actually looking them in the eye when you do it. Both count as the kind of fast God is asking for.
Why do you think the people in Isaiah's time were confused about what genuine worship looked like — what had they gotten right, and what had they fundamentally missed?
Where in your daily life have you normalized a "yoke" — a system, habit, or dynamic that diminishes someone — without recognizing it as something faith should address?
This verse pushes back against the idea that faith is primarily a private, interior matter. Where does that challenge land for you — where do you agree, and where do you honestly push back?
Who in your life — at work, at home, or in your neighborhood — is carrying a burden you have some real ability to help lift, and what's kept you from doing it?
What would it look like to make justice a regular part of your spiritual practice — not a cause separate from your faith, but woven into it as an act of worship?
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;
Isaiah 58:9
Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
Proverbs 21:13
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
1 Timothy 6:1
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27
If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain;
Proverbs 24:11
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Micah 6:8
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Matthew 5:7
"[Rather] is this not the fast which I choose, To undo the bonds of wickedness, To tear to pieces the ropes of the yoke, To let the oppressed go free And break apart every [enslaving] yoke?
AMP
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
ESV
'Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?
NASB
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
NIV
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
NKJV
“No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.
NLT
"This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.
MSG