The people of Jerusalem are fasting. They are afflicting their souls. They are bowing their heads like a bulrush. They are doing everything the suzerain-vassal treaty calls for in a season of repentance.

And the Great King is silent.

Their question to Isaiah: “Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?” (Isaiah 58:3).

Isaiah 58 is the Great King’s answer, and it is not what they expected.

He has seen the fasting. He has not responded because something is missing from it.

The fast the Great King has chosen looks different: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?” (Isaiah 58:6–7).

The suzerain-vassal treaty has always run in two directions at once: vertical, toward the Great King, and horizontal, toward fellow vassals. Mishpat, justice, and tsedaqah, righteousness, are the covenant’s horizontal expectations.

To show covenantal loyalty is to love the Great King and to love your neighbor.

To love the Great King and to love your neighbor is to practice righteousness and justice.

Amos named them. Micah named them. The vineyard parable named them. Fasting that leaves the oppressed bound is ritual practice stripped of covenant meaning.

The Great King hears the fast that releases the oppressed.