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?

ISAIAH 58:5KJV
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Isaiah 58:5 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 58:5 mean?

Isaiah 58:5 questions whether a day of fasting is acceptable to the LORD simply because people go through familiar signs of sorrow and humility. The verse presses its hearers to consider what kind of fast the LORD actually chooses.

The LORD speaks through Isaiah in a series of pointed questions. A bowed head resembles a bulrush bent over, while sackcloth and ashes picture a person who has taken a lowly, mournful position.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 58:5

  • “afflict” — עָנָה (ʿanah): This word can mean to humble or bring low. Here, “afflict his soul” describes a person humbling himself during a fast.
  • “soul” — נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh): This word can refer to a person’s life or self. In “afflict his soul,” it points to the person himself, rather than necessarily to a separate part of him.
  • “acceptable” — רָצוֹן (ratson): This word carries the sense of favor or approval. An “acceptable day to the LORD” is a day that meets with the LORD’s favor, not merely a day people have named a fast.

Why Isaiah 58:5 matters

  • The verse challenges the people’s own label for their observance. The final question asks whether they will call it both “a fast” and “an acceptable day to the LORD.”
  • The wider passage gives the questions a concrete setting. Verse 3 describes people fasting while pursuing their own interests and pressing their workers, and verse 6 speaks of undoing unjust bonds and freeing those who are oppressed.

Where else these words appear

“spread” Hebrew H3331 · used in 4 verses

  • Esther 4:3 And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
  • Psalms 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
  • Isaiah 14:11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

“down” Hebrew H3721 · used in 5 verses

  • Psalms 57:6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.
  • Psalms 145:14 The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
  • Psalms 146:8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

“bulrush” Hebrew H100 · used in 5 verses

  • Job 41:2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
  • Job 41:20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.
  • Isaiah 9:14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

“fast” Hebrew H6685 · used in 22 verses

  • 2 Samuel 12:16 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
  • Esther 9:31 To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.
  • Jeremiah 36:9 And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.