Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 58:4

4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate , and to smite with the fist of wickedness , ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

Your fasting days, wherein you ought in a special manner to implore the Mercy of God, and to shew compassion to Men, you imploy in a great measure in injuring or quarreling with your Brethren, your Servants, or Debtors, or in contriving mischief against them, as if the design of your fasting and praying to God, were only to obtain a licence to oppress Men. Compare Mat. 23. 14.

Or, with a wicked fist, a Genitive of the Adjunct. To deal rigorously and injuriously with your Servants or Debtors, which Servants, it may be, had sold themselves to the year of Redemption, Exod. 21. 2. Lev. 25. 39, 40, 50. You handle them with an hard hand, the word is used for fist, Exod. 21. 18. the LXX add the humble, poor, or inferiour person, and that not only their Debtors with a summum jus exact rigour, which seems elsewhere to be expressed by grinding the face, ch. 3. 15. and in that Parable by taking by the Throat, Mat. 18. 28. but also their Servants out of meer Will and Pleasure, and in contempt of them, treating them opprobriously as Christ was handled in contempt and scorn, Mat. 26. 67, 68. Ioh. 18. 22.

Either 1. In strife and Debate, in which Mens Passions shew themselves by loud clamours. Or 2. So as to cause the cry of the oppressed, by reason of your injuries, of what kind soever, to enter into the Ears of God, which is a crying sin, whether it proceed from unmercifulness, Exod. 22. 25, 26, 27. which sometimes encreaseth to rage, 2 Chr. 28. 9. or from injustice, ch. 5. 7. or from fraud and deceit, Ia[illegible: 1+ letters]. 5. 4. The Scripture doth frequently express whatever sin is against Charity in special, as also general complex sins, by crying, Gen. 18. 20, 21. Ion. 1. 2. Or 3. By way of Ostentation, to note their Hypocrisie, they love to be taken notice of by others, Mat. 6. 2, 5, 16. or, their Folly, supposing that they shall be heard for their much speaking, upon which account Baals Priests are mocked by E[illegible: 1+ letters]ijah, 1 Kin. 18. 27, 28. 4. Voice here relates principally to their Prayer, it is a Synecdoche of the kind; so the sense is, this is not the way to have your Prayers heard, if you desire that, you must fast in another manner, and abstain from all kind of oppression: And this seems best to suit the Context, which is to shew what kind of fast the Lord reproves, and what he approves in the following verses.

Marginal references: Or, ye fast not as this day▪