<p class="poetry">No, this is the kind of fast I want.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I want you<n id="2" /> to remove the sinful chains,p> <p class="poetry">to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke,p> <p class="poetry">to set free the oppressed,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and to break every burdensome yoke.p>

<p class="poetry">Then you will call out, and the <sc>Lordsc> will respond;p> <p class="poetry">you will cry out, and he will reply, &#8216;Here I am.&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">You must<n id="1" /> remove the burdensome yoke from among youp> <p class="poetry">and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.p>

<p class="poetry">that sends messengers by sea,p> <p class="poetry">who glide over the water&#8217;s surface in boats made of papyrus.p> <p class="poetry">Go, you swift messengers,p> <p class="poetry">to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">to a people that are feared far and wide,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">to a nation strong and victorious,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">whose land rivers divide.<n id="4" />p>

The king of Assyria sent his chief adviser<n id="1" /> from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> along with a large army. The chief adviser<n id="3" /> stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth.<n id="4" />

But the chief adviser said, &#8220;My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you.<n id="1" /> His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests,<n id="1" /> clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:

Perhaps the <sc>Lordsc> your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God.<n id="1" /> When the <sc>Lordsc> your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said.<n id="2" /> So pray for this remnant that remains.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel says: &#8216;Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria,<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">In the same way, the promise that I makep> <p class="poetry">does not return to me, having accomplished nothing.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">No, it is realized as I desirep> <p class="poetry">and is fulfilled as I intend.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry">The spirit of the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> is upon me,p> <p class="poetry">because the <sc>Lordsc> has chosen<n id="1" /> me.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He has commissioned<n id="3" /> me to encourage<n id="4" /> the poor,p> <p class="poetry">to help<n id="5" /> the brokenhearted,p> <p class="poetry">to decree the release of captives,p> <p class="poetry">and the freeing of prisoners,p>

I will perform a mighty act among them<n id="1" /> and then send some of those who remain to the nations &#8211; to Tarshish, Pul,<n id="2" /> Lud<n id="3" /> (known for its archers<n id="4" />), Tubal, Javan,<n id="5" /> and to the distant coastlands<n id="6" /> that have not heard about me or seen my splendor. They will tell the nations of my splendor.