Deacon Tom preached from Isaiah 58 this noon, at the mid-day ashes service:

5

Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

6

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke;

7

Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.

 

Thus New American Bible.

I followed along with my King James Version:

⁵Is 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?

⁶Is 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?

⁷Is 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?

NAB pedestrianizes it, to reach a new, I say lower, common denominator.

It gives up on the rhetorical questioning after verse 5, for one thing, and that lessens the impact.

Some phrases have the same effect:

⁵Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul?

becomes

5

Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance . . . ?

Another:

to loose the bands of wickedness

becomes

releasing those bound unjustly

A third:

that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

becomes

not turning your back on your own

Not good trade-offs, undue emphasis on the literal, the everyday.