Verse Lens · Context pointer
Isaiah 58:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
The prophetic poem or speech in Isaiah introduces or commands “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness” at Isaiah 58:4 as “A Self-Interested Fast Cannot Hide Exploitation” develops.
Read It With
- Isaiah 58:1–5
Read Isaiah 58:4 after the prior line and before the unit's outcome. The prophetic poem or speech in Isaiah introduces or commands “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness” at Isaiah 58:4 as “A Self-Interested Fast Cannot Hide Exploitation” develops. Preserve this limit: A Self-Interested Fast Cannot Hide Exploitation does not authorize partisan weaponization, punitive control, or claiming concern for justice while ignoring people harmed by one's own institutions.
Why It Needs Context
Isaiah 58:1–5 gives Isaiah 58:4 its literary owner and outcome. The prophetic poem or speech in Isaiah introduces or commands “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness” at Isaiah 58:4 as “A Self-Interested Fast Cannot Hide Exploitation” develops. Application waits until that movement is understood.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Isaiah 58:1–5 — A Self-Interested Fast Cannot Hide ExploitationSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Isaiah 58:1–5, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Isaiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology at the exact unit, without treating morphology as apparatus, lexicon, composition history, or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Isa.xml, OSIS 58:1–5 with Hebrew/KJV versification difference checked
Open the fixed Hebrew Isaiah file ↗