myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 58:6–7

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen?": bonds loosed, bread shared, and Luke 4:18

"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… 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." The Great Isaiah Scroll adds "with a garment." In Luke 4:18, the reading in the Nazareth synagogue includes a line from the Greek of 58:6, "to set at liberty them that are bruised," inside the words of 61:1–2.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 58:6–7. In v. 6 "the fast which I choose" with the article and "which," and "and to undo" with a conjunction. In v. 7 adds "a garment": "when you see the naked, cover him with a garment." Otherwise the differences are of spelling (fuller use of vowel letters) and small grammatical forms.

  3. 1st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)

    1QIsa-b (1Q8), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 58:6–7. Agrees with the Masoretic Text in vv. 6–7.

  4. 1st century BC – 1st century AD (reported)

    4QIsa-d (4Q58), Qumran Cave 4

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 58:6–7. A fragmentary copy: only parts of these verses survive, and in the transcription much of the passage is restored by the editors. What survives of v. 6 agrees with the Masoretic Text.

  5. 1st century AD; edition 2010s

    Luke 4:18 (Greek New Testament; library: Statistical Restoration text)

    ✓ Contains this passageUncertain relationship to the verse (which wording it followed is the question)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: the Greek New Testament editions in the library (Textus Receptus, Byzantine Textform, Statistical Restoration).

    “˚Πνεῦμα ˚Κυρίου ἐπʼ ἐμέ, οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέν με εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς, ἀπέσταλκέν με κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν, καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν, ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει,

    …to send away the crushed in release

    Part of the reading in Luke 4:18–19; this line comes from the Greek of Isaiah 58:6, not from 61:1. Luke's report. Words attributed to Jesus. KJV: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,"

  6. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Nonne hoc est magis jejunium quod elegi? Dissolve colligationes impietatis, solve fasciculos deprimentes, dimitte eos qui confracti sunt liberos, et omne onus dirumpe; frange esurienti panem tuum, et egenos vagosque induc in domum tuam; cum videris nudum, operi eum, et carnem tuam ne despexeris.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 58:6–7. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  7. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    הֲל֣וֹא זֶה֮ צ֣וֹם אֶבְחָרֵהוּ֒ פַּתֵּ֙חַ֙ חַרְצֻבּ֣וֹת רֶ֔שַׁע הַתֵּ֖ר אֲגֻדּ֣וֹת מוֹטָ֑ה וְשַׁלַּ֤ח רְצוּצִים֙ חָפְשִׁ֔ים וְכָל־מוֹטָ֖ה תְּנַתֵּֽקוּ׃ הֲל֨וֹא פָרֹ֤ס לָֽרָעֵב֙ לַחְמֶ֔ךָ וַעֲנִיִּ֥ים מְרוּדִ֖ים תָּ֣בִיא בָ֑יִת כִּֽי־תִרְאֶ֤ה עָרֹם֙ וְכִסִּית֔וֹ וּמִבְּשָׂרְךָ֖ לֹ֥א תִתְעַלָּֽם׃

    Is not this the fast I choose: to open the fetters of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to break every yoke? (v. 6)

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 58:6–7.

  8. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    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?

  9. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Ce n’est pas un tel jeûne que j’ai choisi, dit le Seigneur; mais romps tous tes liens avec l’iniquité; dénoue les nœuds des contrats violents; renvoie quittes ceux que tu as lésés; déchire toute obligation inique. Romps ton pain avec l’affamé; recueille dans ta maison le pauvre sans abri. Si tu vois un homme nu, donne-lui des vêtements, et garde-toi de mépriser ceux de ta propre chair.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 58:6–7. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: a small addition in 1QIsa-a; later quotation of the Greek of v. 6 inside Luke's composite reading (Luke 4:18).

The verbs are concrete: open (patteach) the knots, untie (hatter) the cords of the yoke, send (shallach) the crushed free (chofshim, the word for released slaves, Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12; Jeremiah 34:9–16).

The library's Greek turns v. 6 toward contracts: "untie the knots of violent contracts; send away quit those you have wronged"; the Greek Luke quotes is "send away the crushed in release" (aphesis, the word of the jubilee in Leviticus 25 Greek).

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedLuke 4:18 includes the Greek of Isaiah 58:6.
  • Independently documentedChofshim is the term for freed slaves.
  • Not independently verifiedIsaiah 58:6 refers to one particular law of release. The language is ethical and civic, not a citation of one law.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 58: The Fast That I Have Chosen →"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet (shofar)": the people seek God daily and ask, "Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not?" God answers: "in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours" (or "drive all your workers"); you fast for strife and to strike with the fist (58:1–5). "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… 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"; you will call and God will answer, "Here I am"; you will be "the repairer of the breach" (vv. 6–12). If you call the sabbath "a delight," not doing your own business, you will ride on the heights of the earth (vv. 13–14).
    • Investigation: Inclusion, Exclusion and the Poor →Isaiah's first chapter tells rulers to "judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (1:17), and its last chapters open the temple to foreigners and eunuchs (56) and perhaps the priesthood to the nations (66:21). Between them the book condemns those who "grind the faces of the poor" (3:15), defines true fasting as freeing the oppressed and feeding the hungry (58), pictures Zion as a woman humiliated and then married, and promises that the wealth of the nations will flow into Jerusalem. This investigation gathers these texts, sets them in their historical settings, and looks honestly at their ethical difficulties as well as their reach.
    • Isaiah 61: The Spirit of the Lord Is upon Me →"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn"; to give those who mourn in Zion beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for a faint spirit (61:1–3). They will rebuild ancient ruins; strangers will tend their flocks; "ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD"; instead of shame, a double portion (vv. 4–7). "For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery"; an everlasting covenant; their descendants known among the nations (vv. 8–9). "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD… for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation… as a bridegroom… and as a bride"; as a garden makes seeds spring up, God will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations (vv. 10–11). In Luke 4:16–21 Jesus reads from this passage in the synagogue at Nazareth and says, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."