Isaiah 58:4

4 Lo! ye fast to chidings and strivings, and smite with the fist wickedly (Lo! your fasting leadeth only to chiding and to arguments, and to wickedly striking with the fist). Do not ye fast, as ye have unto this day, (so) that your cry (can once again) be heard on high.

Isaiah 58:4 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 58:4

Behold, ye fast for strife and debate
Brawling with their servants for not doing work enough; or quarrelling with their debtors for not paying their debts; or the main of their religion lay in contentions and strifes about words, vain hot disputations about rites and ceremonies in worship, as is well known to have been the case of the reformed churches: and to smite with the fist of wickedness;
their servants or their debtors; or rather it may design the persecution of such whose consciences would not suffer them to receive the doctrines professed; or submit to ordinances as administered; or comply with rites and ceremonies enjoined by the said churches; for which they have smitten their brethren that dissented from them with the fist, or have persecuted them in a violent manner by imprisonment, confiscation of goods; all which is no other than a fist of wickedness, and highly displeasing to God, and renders all their services unacceptable in his sight; see ( Matthew 24:49 ) : ye shall not fast as ye do this day;
or, "as this day"; after this manner; this is not right: to make your voice to be heard on high;
referring either to their noisy threatening of their servants for not doing their work; or their clamorous demands upon their debtors; or to their loud prayers, joined with their fasting, which they expected to be heard in the highest heaven, but would be mistaken; for such services, attended with the above evils, are not wellpleasing to God.

Isaiah 58:4 In-Context

2 For they seek me from day into day, and they will (to) know my ways; as a folk, that hath done rightfulness, and that hath not forsaken the doom of their God; they pray (to) me (for the) dooms of rightfulness, and they will (to) nigh to God. (For they seek me from day to day, and they say that they delight to know my ways; like a nation that truly hath done rightfully, and hath not deserted the justice of their God; they pray to me for judgements of righteousness/they pray to me for laws that be just, or that be right, and they say that they delight to come near, or close, to God.)

3 Why fasted we, and thou beheldest not; we meeked our souls, and thou knewest not? Lo! your will is found in the day of your fasting, and ye ask all your debtors. (But they also say, Why did we fast, if thou beheldest not? why did we meek, or humble, our souls, if thou knewest not? And I replieth, Lo! ye pursue your own desires on the day of your fast, and ye oppress all your workers.)

4 Lo! ye fast to chidings and strivings, and smite with the fist wickedly (Lo! your fasting leadeth only to chiding and to arguments, and to wickedly striking with the fist). Do not ye fast, as ye have unto this day, (so) that your cry (can once again) be heard on high.

5 Whether such is the fasting which I choose, a man to torment his soul by (a) day? whether to bind his head as a circle, and to make ready a sackcloth and ashes (to lie upon)? Whether thou shalt call this a fasting, and a day acceptable to the Lord? (Is that the fast which I would choose, yea, a day for a person to torment his soul? to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to prepare sackcloth and ashes to lie upon? Shalt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?)

6 Whether not this is more the fasting, which I choose? Unbind thou the bindings together of unpity, either of cruelty, release thou [the] burdens pressing down; deliver thou them free, that be broken, and break thou each burden. (Rather, is not this the fast, which I would choose? To unbind the bindings up of pitilessness, or of cruelty, to release the burdens of oppression, to set free those who be broken, and to break each burden.)