Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 58:3

3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not ? wherefore have we afflicted our soul , and thou takest no knowledg? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure , and exact all your labours .

They complain of hard usage from God, that although they prayed, and fasted, and kept the rest of Gods ordinances, all which are synecdochically comprehended under the title of fasting, all their labor was lost, and God neither regarded nor delivered them.

Defrauded and pinched our Appetites with fasting, of which this Phrase is used, Lev. 16. 29. & 23. 27, 29.

In those solemn days of fasting which I have appointed: or, in those times when I have called you by the course of my Providence, and counsels of my Prophets, unto fasting, and weeping and mourning, &c. Isa. 22. 12.

Either 1. You indulge your selves in sensuality, as they did, Isa. 22. 13. But this doth not agree with that afflicting of their Souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledgeth, v. 5. Or rather 2. You pursue and satisfie your own Lusts: though you abstain from bodily food, you do not mortifie your own sinful concupiscences, and when you are restrained from outward Acts, yet even then your Thoughts and Affections are set upon, and working toward those things which gratifie your fleshly Inclinations and worldly Interests.

Your money got by your labour, and lent to others either for their need, or your own advantage: for Labour is oft put for Wealth, as Deut. 28. 33. Isa. 45. 14, &c. Heb. your griefs, not passively, those things which are grievous to you, but actively such as are very grievous and burdensom to others, either hard Service, above the strength of your Servants, or beyond the time limited by God for their Service, of which see an Instance, Ier. 34. 13, 14, 15, 16. or debts, which you require either with usury, or at least with rigour and cruelty, when either the general Law of Charity, or Gods particular and positive Law, commanded the release or at least the forbearance of them; of which see an instance, Nehem. 5. 1, 2, &c.

Marginal references: Or, things wherewith ye grieve others.; Heb. grief.