הֲל֣וֹא זֶה֮ צ֣וֹם אֶבְחָרֵהוּ֒ פַּתֵּ֨חַ֙ חַרְצֻבּ֣וֹת רֶ֔שַׁע הַתֵּ֖ר אֲגֻדּ֣וֹת מוֹטָ֑ה וְשַׁלַּ֤ח רְצוּצִים֙ חָפְשִׁ֔ים וְכָל־מוֹטָ֖ה תְּנַתֵּֽקוּ׃
6Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
The Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “fast” in English is translated in Isthmus Mixe as “going without food to worship God,” in Lacandon as “leaving eating in order to talk to God” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.), in Vidunda as “resting to eat” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext), and in Kankanaey as “endure hunger” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation).
See also fast (Luke 5:33).
The Greek and Hebrew term that is translated into English as “yoke,” the Afar translation uses koyta (poles of camel pack) which refers to two poles in front of the hump and two behind; elsewhere in agricultural Ethiopia the yoke is only in front of the hump.
In Chol it is translated with tajbal, a term for “headband” (for carrying) (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.). Likewise, in Kele, it is translated with njɛmbɛ, “a carrying strap worn around the head and across the chest or shoulders to support a burden of firewood, garden produce or even a child carried by this on the back or hip” (source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. ).
In Matumbi it is translated as “rope” and “yoke is easy” is translated as “rope is slack/soft.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
In Kwasio it is translated with a term that refers to a “bulky piece of wood attached to the neck of a goat, preventing it from roaming freely in the brushy undergrowth.”
Joshua Ham explains: “When checking this verse in Kwasio, I was surprised to find that the Kwasio had a word for yoke. You see, none of the language groups we have worked with have a tradition of using animals to pull carts or plows. Since yokes don’t exist in the culture, there’s no need for a word for that concept in these languages.
“When I asked the Kwasio team about their word for yoke, they said that they don’t use yokes to help animals pull plows; rather, their word for yoke refers to a bulky piece of wood attached to the neck of a goat, preventing it from roaming freely in the brushy undergrowth. So while the exact use of a Kwasio yoke is not the same as a biblical yoke, there are a lot of similarities: in both cases, it’s a piece of wood around an animal’s neck that serves to keep the animal under control. While the overlap isn’t perfect, it’s pretty good — and almost certainly better than trying to squeeze in a distracting explanation of how yokes function in the biblical cultures.”
Adam Boyd (in The PNG Experience ) tells this story about finding the right term in Enga: “Jesus’s words in Matthew 11:29-30 are some of the most difficult to translate into the Enga language. From the time that I became a Christian, I was taught that a yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the neck of two animals and attached to a plough or cart that they are to pull. This is an easy enough concept to understand for people who come from societies that make use of beasts of burden, but in Papua New Guinea, there are no beasts of burden. Consequently the concept of a yoke placed on animals is completely foreign. Thus, we have struggled greatly in our attempt to translate Matthew 11:29-30.
“Recently, however, I came to learn that a yoke can also refer to a wooden frame that a person places on his neck or shoulders to make it easier to carry a heavy load. Indeed, the Bible often makes figurative use of the word ‘yoke’ as it refers to people and not to beasts of burden (see 1 Kings 12:4-14). As I was pondering that idea, I began to notice that when Engan men carry heavy logs on one shoulder, they often balance the load by supporting it with a small stick placed across the other shoulder. A few weeks ago, it clicked in my mind that the small stick they use to make it easier to carry a heavy log is like a yoke.
“Excited by this realization, I quickly asked my friend Benjamin if the stick that men use to make it easier to carry a heavy log has a name in Enga. Sure enough it does. It is called a pyakende. With great anticipation, I asked the translation team if we could use the word pyakende to translate the word ‘yoke’. After wrestling with the phrasing for a little while, we came up with the following translation: ‘In order to remove the heaviness from your shoulders, take my pyakende. When you have taken it, you will receive rest. As my pyakende helps you, what I give you to carry is not heavy and you will carry it without struggling.’”
“Yoke” is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:
Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Isaiah 58:6:
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
See also pronoun for “God”.
Verses 6 and 7 each use a rhetorical question. These questions make emphatic statements that set out exactly what God requires, what is acceptable to him. They contrast with the rhetorical questions in the previous verse. The extended questions in verses 6-7 offer some of the most practical definitions found anywhere in Scripture of what religious activity is intended to be. Similar insights were given earlier in the book (see, for example 1.12-17). Other prophets say similar things (see, for example, Micah 6.6-8). Concern for others in the community is inseparable from religious activity, to the point that social concern is itself a religious act that is more important than ritual observance (compare Matt 25.31-46).
Is not this the fast that I choose…?: This rhetorical question makes a strong statement about the exact kind of fast that God requires. The question form may be presented as a statement (see second example below). The demonstrative pronoun this points forward to the actions listed in the rest of the verse, not to what preceded. The phrase the fast that I choose links back explicitly to the challenge offered in the rhetorical question that opens verse 5. God now answers his own question. The word fast in this clause is used figuratively, in contrast to its previous uses where it referred to the actual ritual of fasting. More important than the ritual fasting is that people practice self-denial by showing concern for others. That is the kind of fast that God finds acceptable, that meets his requirements. If it is not possible to bring out this figurative meaning in translation, the beginning of the verse may be rendered “What I really require [instead of your kind of fasting] is….”
To loose the bonds of wickedness is literally “to open the bonds/chains of wickedness.” This line could mean that the people are so set in their wickedness that it appears they are chained to it, so God tells them to remove those chains. However, for most versions this line refers to releasing innocent people from the injustice that binds them like chains; for example, Good News Translation says “Remove the chains of oppression,” and New International Version has “to loose the chains of injustice.” This understanding makes the line a close parallel to the next one. Both views are valid since the brief Hebrew expression here is ambiguous.
To undo the thongs of the yoke: The thongs of the yoke refer to the ropes that hold a yoke in place on a person or an animal. For yoke see the comments on 9.4 even though a different Hebrew word is used there. As in 9.4, the yoke is a metaphor for oppression (see also 10.27; 14.25; 47.6). So the underlying sense here is that true fasting consists in seeking the release of those who are oppressed. Most modern versions retain the figures of speech in this verse, but other options are possible; for example, Bible en français courant (1997) translates the first three lines as “The kind of fasting that I love, this is it, you know it well: it is to free people who are unjustly in chains, it is to free them from the constraints that weigh them down.”
To let the oppressed go free is another example of true “fasting.” The Hebrew word rendered oppressed can mean “to crush” or “to oppress” (see 36.6, where it is rendered “broken”). Most versions use “the oppressed,” but other possible renderings are “the disheartened/discouraged people” and “the people who are made to suffer unjustly.” The verb let … go free may be rendered “release,” “give confidence” or “encourage,” depending on how the oppressed is translated.
To break every yoke may be better rendered “remove every yoke,” since every yoke is a metaphor for any kind of oppression. Bible en français courant translates this line as a concluding statement: “in brief, it is a matter of removing everything that keeps them enslaved.”
For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:
• Is not this here the kind of fasting I require?
I require you to set people free from their vicious bonds,
to release the ties that hold them captive,
to set free those who are oppressed,
and to smash every bond.
• What I really require instead of your [so-called] fasting
is that you set people free from bonds that are unjust,
that you release them from the yoke that confines them.
Set free any who are oppressed,
and break all that binds people unjustly.
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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