34 Bible Verses about Abstinence as a discipline
Most Relevant Verses
And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, Any fat of ox and sheep and goat ye do not eat; and the fat of a carcase, and the fat of a torn thing is prepared for any work, but ye do certainly not eat it;read more.
for whoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which one bringeth near a fire-offering to Jehovah, even the person who eateth hath been cut off from his people. 'And any blood ye do not eat in all your dwellings, of fowl, or of beast; any person who eateth any blood, even that person hath been cut off from his people.'
Sons ye are to Jehovah your God; ye do not cut yourselves, nor make baldness between your eyes for the dead; for a holy people art thou to Jehovah thy God, and on thee hath Jehovah fixed to be to Him for a people, a peculiar treasure, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ground. 'Thou dost not eat any abominable thing;read more.
this is the beast which ye do eat: ox, lamb of the sheep, or kid of the goats, hart, and roe, and fallow deer, and wild goat, and pygarg, and wild ox, and chamois; and every beast dividing the hoof, and cleaving the cleft into two hoofs, bringing up the cud, among the beasts -- it ye do eat. Only, this ye do not eat, of those bringing up the cud, and of those dividing the cloven hoof: the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit, for they are bringing up the cud but the hoof have not divided; unclean they are to you; and the sow, for it is dividing the hoof, and not bringing up the cud, unclean it is to you; of their flesh ye do not eat, and against their carcase ye do not come. This ye do eat of all that are in the waters; all that hath fins and scales ye do eat; and anything which hath not fins and scales ye do not eat; unclean it is to you. 'Any clean bird ye do eat; and these are they of which ye do not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, and the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after its kind, and every raven after its kind; and the owl, and the night-hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after its kind; the little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican, and the gier-eagle, and the cormorant, and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the lapwing, and the bat; and every teeming thing which is flying, unclean it is to you; they are not eaten; any clean fowl ye do eat. Ye do not eat of any carcase; to the sojourner who is within thy gates thou dost give it, and he hath eaten it; or sell it to a stranger; for a holy people thou art to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
And on the morrow, as these are proceeding on the way, and are drawing nigh to the city, Peter went up upon the house-top to pray, about the sixth hour, and he became very hungry, and wished to eat; and they making ready, there fell upon him a trance, and he doth behold the heaven opened, and descending unto him a certain vessel, as a great sheet, bound at the four corners, and let down upon the earth,read more.
in which were all the four-footed beasts of the earth, and the wild beasts, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the heaven, and there came a voice unto him: 'Having risen, Peter, slay and eat.' And Peter said, 'Not so, Lord; because at no time did I eat anything common or unclean;'
And Moses cometh down from the mount unto the people, and sanctifieth the people, and they wash their garments; and he saith unto the people, 'Be ye prepared for the third day, come not nigh unto a woman.'
And it hath been to you for a statute age-during, in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month, ye humble yourselves, and do no work -- the native, and the sojourner who is sojourning in your midst; for on this day he maketh atonement for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins before Jehovah ye are clean; it is to you a sabbath of rest, and ye have humbled yourselves -- a statute age-during.
And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When a man or woman doeth singularly, by vowing a vow of a Nazarite, to be separate to Jehovah; from wine and strong drink he doth keep separate; vinegar of wine, and vinegar of strong drink he doth not drink, and any juice of grapes he doth not drink, and grapes moist or dry he doth not eat;read more.
all days of his separation, of anything which is made of the wine-vine, from kernels even unto husk, he doth not eat.
and the sons of Israel have observed the sabbath; to keep the sabbath to their generations is a covenant age-during, between Me and the sons of Israel it is a sign -- to the age; for six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, and in the seventh day He hath ceased, and is refreshed.'
'And on the tenth of this seventh month a holy convocation ye have, and ye have humbled your souls; ye do no work;
And, now, take heed, I pray thee, and do not drink wine, and strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing,
And Ezra riseth from before the house of God, and goeth unto the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib; yea, he goeth there, bread he hath not eaten, and water he hath not drunk, for he is mourning because of the trespass of the removal.
and they say to me, 'Those left, who have been left of the captivity there in the province, are in great evil, and in reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burnt with fire.' And it cometh to pass, at my hearing these words, I have sat down, and I weep and mourn for days, and I am fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.
And also now -- an affirmation of Jehovah, Turn ye back unto Me with all your heart, And with fasting, and with weeping, And with lamentation.
And the men of Nineveh believe in God, and proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even unto their least,
And there were certain in Antioch, in the assembly there, prophets and teachers; both Barnabas, and Simeon who is called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen also -- Herod the tetrarch's foster-brother -- and Saul; and in their ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Separate ye to me both Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them,'
Then Jesus was led up to the wilderness by the Spirit, to be tempted by the Devil, and having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he did hunger.
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, turned back from the Jordan, and was brought in the Spirit to the wilderness, forty days being tempted by the Devil, and he did not eat anything in those days, and they having been ended, he afterward hungered,
Then come to him do the disciples of John, saying, 'Wherefore do we and the Pharisees fast much, and thy disciples fast not?' And Jesus said to them, 'Can the sons of the bride-chamber mourn, so long as the bridegroom is with them? but days shall come when the bridegroom may be taken from them, and then they shall fast.
And the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees were fasting, and they come and say to him, 'Wherefore do the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees fast, and thy disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them, 'Are the sons of the bride-chamber able, while the bridegroom is with them, to fast? so long time as they have the bridegroom with them they are not able to fast; but days shall come when the bridegroom may be taken from them, and then they shall fast -- in those days.
And they said unto him, 'Wherefore do the disciples of John fast often, and make supplications -- in like manner also those of the Pharisees -- but thine do eat and drink?' And he said unto them, 'Are ye able to make the sons of the bride-chamber -- in the bridegroom being with them -- to fast? but days will come, and, when the bridegroom may be taken away from them, then they shall fast in those days.'
And there was Anna, a prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, she was much advanced in days, having lived with an husband seven years from her virginity, and she is a widow of about eighty-four years, who did depart not from the temple, with fasts and supplications serving, night and day,
He who is regarding the day, to the Lord he doth regard it, and he who is not regarding the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He who is eating, to the Lord he doth eat, for he doth give thanks to God; and he who is not eating, to the Lord he doth not eat, and doth give thanks to God.
and he saith unto the people, 'Be ye prepared for the third day, come not nigh unto a woman.'
Then said Jesus to his disciples, 'If any one doth will to come after me, let him disown himself, and take up his cross, and follow me,
And having called near the multitude, with his disciples, he said to them, 'Whoever doth will to come after me -- let him disown himself, and take up his cross, and follow me;
And he said unto all, 'If any one doth will to come after me, let him disown himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me;
as in day-time, let us walk becomingly; not in revellings and drunkennesses, not in chamberings and lasciviousnesses, not in strife and emulation;
wherefore I judge: not to trouble those who from the nations do turn back to God, but to write to them to abstain from the pollutions of the idols, and the whoredom, and the strangled thing; and the blood;
Right it is not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything in which thy brother doth stumble, or is made to fall, or is weak.
'And when ye may fast, be ye not as the hypocrites, of sour countenances, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men fasting; verily I say to you, that they have their reward.
'Why have we fasted, and Thou hast not seen? We have afflicted our soul, and Thou knowest not.' Lo, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, And all your labours ye exact. Lo, for strife and debate ye fast, And to smite with the fist of wickedness, Ye fast not as to -day, To sound in the high place your voice. Like this is the fast that I choose? The day of a man's afflicting his soul? To bow as a reed his head, And sackcloth and ashes spread out? This dost thou call a fast, And a desirable day -- to Jehovah?read more.
Is not this the fast that I chose -- To loose the bands of wickedness, To shake off the burdens of the yoke, And to send out the oppressed free, And every yoke ye draw off? Is it not to deal to the hungry thy bread, And the mourning poor bring home, That thou seest the naked and cover him, And from thine own flesh hide not thyself?
Thus said Jehovah concerning this people: Well they have loved to wander, Their feet they have not restrained, And Jehovah hath not accepted them, Now doth He remember their iniquity, And inspect their sin. And Jehovah saith unto me: Thou dost not pray for this people for good, When they fast, I hearken not unto their cry, And when they cause to ascend burnt-offering and present, I accept them not, For by sword, and by famine, And by pestilence, I am consuming them.
And Beth-El sendeth Sherezer and Regem-Melech, and its men, to appease the face of Jehovah, speaking unto the priests who are at the house of Jehovah of Hosts, and unto the prophets, saying, 'Do I weep in the fifth month -- being separated -- as I have done these so many years?' And there is a word of Jehovah of Hosts unto me, saying:read more.
'Speak unto all the people of the land, and unto the priests, saying: When ye fasted with mourning in the fifth and in the seventh months -- even these seventy years -- did ye keep the fast to Me -- Me? And when ye eat, and when ye drink, is it not ye who are eating, and ye who are drinking?
the Pharisee having stood by himself, thus prayed: God, I thank Thee that I am not as the rest of men, rapacious, unrighteous, adulterers, or even as this tax-gatherer; I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all things -- as many as I possess.
