אם תשיב משבת רגלך - מסחר בשבת

(1) Cry with full throat, without restraint;
Raise your voice like a ram’s horn!
Declare to My people their transgression,
To the House of Jacob their sin.
(2) To be sure, they seek Me daily,
Eager to learn My ways.
Like a nation that does what is right,
That has not abandoned the laws of its God,
They ask Me for the right way,
They are eager for the nearness of God:(3) “Why, when we fasted, did You not see?
When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?”
Because on your fast day
You see to your business
And oppress all your laborers!(4) Because you fast in strife and contention,
And you strike with a wicked fist!
Your fasting today is not such
As to make your voice heard on high.(5) Is such the fast I desire,
A day for men to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast,
A day when the LORD is favorable?(6) No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke^-a
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.(7) It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe him,
And not to ignore your own kin.
(8) Then shall your light burst through like the dawn
And your healing spring up quickly;
Your Vindicator shall march before you,
The Presence of the LORD shall be your rear guard.(9) Then, when you call, the LORD will answer;
When you cry, He will say: Here I am.
If you banish the yoke from your midst,
The menacing hand,^-b and evil speech,(10) And you offer your compassion to the hungry
And satisfy the famished creature—
Then shall your light shine in darkness,
And your gloom shall be like noonday.(11) The LORD will guide you always;
He will slake your thirst in parched places^-d
And give strength to your bones.
You shall be like a watered garden,
Like a spring whose waters do not fail.(12) Men from your midst shall rebuild ancient ruins,
You shall restore foundations laid long ago.
And you shall be called
“Repairer of fallen walls,
Restorer of lanes for habitation.”(13) If you refrain from trampling^-e the sabbath,
From pursuing your affairs on My holy day;
If you call the sabbath “delight,”
The LORD’s holy day “honored”;
And if you honor it and go not your ways
Nor look to your affairs, nor strike bargains—(14) Then you can seek the favor of the LORD.^-f
I will set you astride the heights of the earth,
And let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob—
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

(1) The guilt of Judah is inscribed
With a stylus of iron,
Engraved with an adamant point
On the tablet of their hearts,
And on the horns of their altars,(2) While their children remember^-a
Their altars and sacred posts,
By verdant trees,
Upon lofty hills.(3) Because of the sin of your shrines
Throughout your borders,
I will make your rampart a heap in the field,
And all your treasures a spoil.^-b(4) You will forfeit,^-c by your own act,
The inheritance I have given you;
I will make you a slave to your enemies
In a land you have never known.
For you have kindled the flame of My wrath
Which shall burn for all time.
(5) Thus said the LORD:
Cursed is he who trusts in man,
Who makes mere flesh his strength,
And turns his thoughts from the LORD.(6) He shall be like a bush in the desert,
Which does not sense the coming of good:
It is set in the scorched places of the wilderness,
In a barren land without inhabitant.(7) Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD,
Whose trust is the LORD alone.(8) He shall be like a tree planted by waters,
Sending forth its roots by a stream:
It does not sense the coming of heat,
Its leaves are ever fresh;
It has no care in a year of drought,
It does not cease to yield fruit.
(9) Most devious is the heart;
It is perverse—who can fathom it?(10) I the LORD probe the heart,
Search the mind—
To repay every man according to his ways,
With the proper fruit of his deeds.
(11) Like a partridge hatching what she did not lay,^-b
So is one who amasses wealth by unjust means;
In the middle of his life it will leave him,
And in the end he will be proved a fool.
(12) O Throne of Glory exalted from of old,
Our Sacred Shrine!(13) O Hope of Israel! O LORD!
All who forsake You shall be put to shame,
Those in the land who turn from You
Shall be doomed men,
For they have forsaken the LORD,
The Fount of living waters.
(14) Heal me, O LORD, and let me be healed;
Save me, and let me be saved;
For You are my glory.(15) See, they say to me:
“Where is the prediction of the LORD?
Let it come to pass!”(16) But I have not evaded
Being a shepherd in your service,^-g
Nor have I longed for the fatal day.
You know the utterances of my lips,
They were ever before You.(17) Do not be a cause of dismay to me;
You are my refuge in a day of calamity.(18) Let my persecutors be shamed,
And let not me be shamed;
Let them be dismayed,
And let not me be dismayed.
Bring on them the day of disaster,
And shatter them with double destruction.
(19) Thus said the LORD to me: Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go forth, and in all the gates of Jerusalem,(20) and say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter by these gates!(21) Thus said the LORD: Guard yourselves for your own sake against carrying burdens on the sabbath day, and bringing them through the gates of Jerusalem.(22) Nor shall you carry out burdens from your houses on the sabbath day, or do any work, but you shall hallow the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. (23) (But they would not listen or turn their ear; they stiffened their necks and would not pay heed or accept discipline.)(24) If you obey Me—declares the LORD—and do not bring in burdens through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day and do no work on it,(25) then through the gates of this city shall enter kings who sit upon the throne of David, with their officers—riding on chariots and horses, they and their officers—and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited for all time.(26) And people shall come from the towns of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the Shephelah, and from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, meal offerings and frankincense, and bringing offerings of thanksgiving to the House of the LORD.(27) But if you do not obey My command to hallow the sabbath day and to carry in no burdens through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will set fire to its gates; it shall consume the fortresses of Jerusalem and it shall not be extinguished.

(1) At that time they read to the people from the Book of Moses, and it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite might ever enter the congregation of God,(2) since they did not meet Israel with bread and water, and hired Balaam against them to curse them; but our God turned the curse into a blessing.(3) When they heard the Teaching, they separated all the alien admixture from Israel.(4) Earlier, the priest Eliashib, a relative of Tobiah, who had been appointed over the rooms in the House of our God,(5) had assigned to him a large room where they used to store the meal offering, the frankincense, the equipment, the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, the dues of the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, and the gifts for the priests.(6) During all this time, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon, I went to the king, and only after a while did I ask leave of the king [to return].(7) When I arrived in Jerusalem, I learned of the outrage perpetrated by Eliashib on behalf of Tobiah in assigning him a room in the courts of the House of God.(8) I was greatly displeased, and had all the household gear of Tobiah thrown out of the room;(9) I gave orders to purify the rooms, and had the equipment of the House of God and the meal offering and the frankincense put back.(10) I then discovered that the portions of the Levites had not been contributed, and that the Levites and the singers who performed the [temple] service had made off, each to his fields.(11) I censured the prefects, saying, “How is it that the House of God has been neglected?” Then I recalled [the Levites] and installed them again in their posts;(12) and all Judah brought the tithes of grain, wine, and oil into the treasuries.(13) I put the treasuries in the charge of the priest Shelemiah, the scribe Zadok, and Pedaiah of the Levites; and assisting them was Hanan son of Zaccur son of Mattaniah—for they were regarded as trustworthy persons, and it was their duty to distribute the portions to their brothers.(14) O my God, remember me favorably for this, and do not blot out the devotion I showed toward the House of my God and its attendants.(15) At that time I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the sabbath, and others bringing heaps of grain and loading them onto asses, also wine, grapes, figs, and all sorts of goods, and bringing them into Jerusalem on the sabbath. I admonished them there and then for selling provisions.(16) Tyrians who lived there brought fish and all sorts of wares and sold them on the sabbath to the Judahites in Jerusalem.(17) I censured the nobles of Judah, saying to them, “What evil thing is this that you are doing, profaning the sabbath day!(18) This is just what your ancestors did, and for it God brought all this misfortune on this city; and now you give cause for further wrath against Israel by profaning the sabbath!”(19) When shadows filled the gateways of Jerusalem at the approach of the sabbath, I gave orders that the doors be closed, and ordered them not to be opened until after the sabbath. I stationed some of my servants at the gates, so that no goods should enter on the sabbath.(20) Once or twice the merchants and the vendors of all sorts of wares spent the night outside Jerusalem,(21) but I warned them, saying, “What do you mean by spending the night alongside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands upon you!” From then on they did not come on the sabbath.(22) I gave orders to the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to preserve the sanctity of the sabbath.
This too, O my God, remember to my credit, and spare me in accord with your abundant faithfulness.(23) Also at that time, I saw that Jews had married Ashdodite, Ammonite, and Moabite women;(24) a good number of their children spoke the language of Ashdod and the language of those various peoples, and did not know how to speak Judean.(25) I censured them, cursed them, flogged them, tore out their hair, and adjured them by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, or take any of their daughters for your sons or yourselves.(26) It was just in such things that King Solomon of Israel sinned! Among the many nations there was not a king like him, and so well loved was he by his God that God made him king of all Israel, yet foreign wives caused even him to sin.(27) How, then, can we acquiesce in your doing this great wrong, breaking faith with our God by marrying foreign women?”(28) One of the sons of Joiada son of the high priest Eliashib was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I drove him away from me.(29) Remember to their discredit, O my God, how they polluted the priesthood, the covenant of the priests and Levites.(30) I purged them of every foreign element, and arranged for the priests and the Levites to work each at his task by shifts,(31) and for the wood offering [to be brought] at fixed times and for the first fruits.
O my God, remember it to my credit!