Isaiah 58:9

9. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am'. If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,

Don't burden others or speak badly of others. This will help us draw near to God. When we are close to God and call out to Him he will be there ready to answer. Of course, He is always there ready to answer. However, when we are drawing close to Him I think we are more ready to hear His response when we have called out to Him.

I really like to know the root meaning of the words originally written by the people inspired by God to write them.

אָז
az (äz): at that time or place; therefore

קָרָא
qara (kä·rä): to call out to

יְהֹוָה
Yĕhovah (yeh·hō·vä): the self-Existent, Eternal

עָנָה
anah (ä·nä): to eye, to heed; pay attention, respond

שָׁוַע
shava (shä·vah): to be free (from trouble); cry aloud or shout for help

אָמַר
amar (ä·mar): to say; answer, declare, talk

הִנֵּה
hinneh (hin·nā): lo!; behold, see

אִם
im (ēm): if, although

סוּר
cuwr (sür): to turn off; leave undone, remove, turn aside

תָּוֶךְ
tavek (tä'·vek): a bisection, the center; therein, middle, midst, with

מוֹטָה
mowtah (mō·tä): a yoke

שָׁלַח
shalach (shä·lakh): to send away, for or out

אֶצְבַּע
etsba (ets·bah): something to seize with; a finger, a toe

דָּבַר
dabar (dä·var): to arrange (words); to speak

אָוֶן
aven (ä·ven): trouble, vanity, wickedness

My word-for-word translation: At that time - to call out to - Jehovah - respond - shout for help - to say - behold - if - turn aside - amidst - a yoke - send away - finger - speaking - trouble

My conversational translation: Then I will call out to God and He will respond. If I shout for help, He will say, 'Behold', if I turn aside amidst the yoke and send away the finger speaking trouble.

I am making an assumption that if I shout out for help and God responds with, "Behold!" that something follows that will help me. Could be a message I hear or read, something I see or an action that helps me.

This verse makes me think of the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you."

Somehow this verse says to me, "Treat others the way you would like God to treat you."

That's something for me to think about today. How am I treating others? Is it how I want to be treated by them or more importantly by God?