“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind.
Then when you call, the LORD will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.”
This is what the LORD says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
“…Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
I, even I, am the LORD,
and apart from me there is no savior.
Yes, and from ancient days I am he.
No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?”
No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
“But I will reveal my name to my people,
and they will come to know its power.
Then at last they will recognize
that I am the one who speaks to them.”
For I am the LORD your God,
who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar.
My name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
and I have put my words in your mouth
and hidden you safely in my hand…
…If you are walking in darkness,
without a ray of light,
trust in the LORD
and rely on your God.
The Sovereign LORD has given me his words of wisdom,
so that I know how to comfort the weary.
Morning by morning he wakens me
and opens my understanding to his will.
