Verse 6

No, this is the kind of fast I want. I want you to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, and to break every burdensome yoke.

Referenced Verses

• Neh 5:10-12 : 10 Even I and my relatives and my associates are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! 11 This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.” 12 They replied,“We will return these things, and we will no longer demand anything from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the wealthy and the officials swear to do what had been promised.
• Isa 58:9 : 9 Then you will call out, and the LORD will respond; you will cry out, and he will reply,‘Here I am.’ You must remove the burdensome yoke from among you and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.
• Jer 34:8-9 : 8 The Lord Threatens to Destroy Those Who Wronged Their Slaves The LORD spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to grant their slaves their freedom. 9 Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. 10 All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. 11 But later they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again.
• Mic 3:2-4 : 2 yet you hate what is good, and love what is evil. You flay my people’s skin and rip the flesh from their bones. 3 You devour my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot– like meat in a kettle. 4 Someday these sinful leaders will cry to the LORD for help, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, because they have done such wicked deeds.”
• 1 Tim 6:1 : 1 Those who are under the yoke as slaves must regard their own masters as deserving of full respect. This will prevent the name of God and Christian teaching from being discredited.