33 Bible Verses about Fasting, Nature Of

Ezra rose from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. He did not eat food nor drink water because he was mourning over the sin of the exiles.

Then I turned my face to the Lord God to seek [him] [by] prayer and pleas for mercy, in fasting and [in] sackcloth and ashes.

And [when it] was day, the Jews made a conspiracy [and] bound themselves under a curse, saying [they would] neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

And so he used to do year after year; {whenever} she went up to the house of Yahweh, she would provoke her so that she would weep and would not eat.

Then the king went to his palace and spent the night in fasting, and no food was brought in before him and his sleep fled from him.

It [is] {a Sabbath of complete rest} for you, and you shall deny yourselves on the ninth [day] of the month in the evening--from evening to evening you must observe your [extraordinary] Sabbath."

And all the {Israelites} and all the troops went up and came to Bethel and wept; and they sat there before Yahweh and fasted on that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before Yahweh.

Then they mourned and wept and fasted over Saul and Jonathan his son until the evening, [as well] as over the people of Yahweh and over the house of Israel because they had fallen by the sword.

And he was {unable to see} [for] three days, and he did not eat or drink.

Then they took their bones and buried [them] under the tamarisk in Jabesh, and they fasted [for] seven days.

every strong man arose and took the dead body of Saul and the dead bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh. And they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh and fasted seven days.

David pleaded [with] God on behalf of the boy and David fasted. He went to spend the night and lay upon the ground. The elders of his household stood over him to lift him up from the ground, but he [was] not willing, and he did not eat [any] food with them. It happened on the seventh day that the child died, and the servants of David [were] afraid to tell him that the child [was] dead, for they said, "Look, when the child [was] alive, we spoke to him, but he would not listen to our voice. How can we tell him, 'The child [is] dead'? He may do [something] evil."read more.
When David saw that his servants [were] whispering together, he realized that the child [was] dead. Then David said to his servants, "[Is] the child dead?" And they said, "He [is] dead." David stood up from the ground and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothing. Then he went [to] the house of Yahweh and worshiped, and he went to his [own] house. He asked, so they served him food, and he ate.

And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights. He ate no food and drank no water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

So he got up, ate, drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights up to Horeb, the mountain of God.

and [after he] had fasted forty days and forty nights, then he was hungry.

forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days, and [when] they were completed, he was hungry.

"And this shall be {a lasting statute} for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you must deny yourselves and you must not do any work, [whether] the native or the alien who is dwelling in your midst, because on this day he shall make atonement for you to cleanse you; you must be clean from all your sins {before} Yahweh. It [is] {a Sabbath of complete rest} for you, and you shall deny yourselves--[it is] {a lasting statute}.

Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Surely the Day of Atonement [is] on the tenth [day] of the seventh month; it shall be a holy assembly for you, and you shall deny yourselves, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh. And you must not do {any regular work} on {this very same day}, because it [is] the Day of Atonement to make atonement for you {before} Yahweh your God.read more.
If [there is] any person who does not deny [himself] on {this very same day}, then he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on {this very same day}, I will exterminate that person from the midst of his people. You must not do any work; [it is] a {lasting statute} throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It [is] {a Sabbath of complete rest} for you, and you shall deny yourselves on the ninth [day] of the month in the evening--from evening to evening you must observe your [extraordinary] Sabbath."

" 'And on the tenth of this seventh month you will have a holy convocation, and {you will afflict yourselves}; you will not do any work.

And [because] considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul strongly recommended,

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'The fast of the fourth [month], the fifth [month], the seventh [month], and the tenth [month] will be for the house of Judah jubilation and joy and merry festivals; therefore love truth and peace.'

And [the people of] Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, and their men, to entreat {the favor} of Yahweh, saying to the {priests of the house of Yahweh of hosts} and to the prophets, "Should I mourn in the fifth month and keep myself separate as I have done for these many years?" And the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying,read more.
"Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: 'When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?

The Pharisee stood [and] prayed these [things] with reference to himself: 'God, I give thanks to you that I am not like other people--swindlers, unrighteous [people], adulterers, or even like this tax collector! I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all that I get.'

Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek Yahweh. And he called for a fast through all Judah.

Now the men of Israel were hard pressed on that day, because Saul had made the army take an oath, saying, "Cursed be the man who eats [any] food until evening, when I will have avenged myself on my enemies!" So none of the army tasted [any] food.

Then the man of God said to the king, "Even if you give to me half of your house I will not come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place, for the word of Yahweh has commanded me, saying, 'You shall not eat bread nor drink water, and you shall not return on the way that you came.'"

She had written in the letters, saying, "Call a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people.

{And then} in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast {before} Yahweh.

And until the day was about to come, Paul was urging [them] all to take [some] food, saying, "Today [is the] fourteenth day you have waited [anxiously], [and] you have continued without eating, having taken nothing.

in beatings, in prisons, in disturbances, in troubles, in sleepless nights, in going hungry,

with toil and hardship, often in sleepless nights, with hunger and thirst, often going hungry, in cold and poorly clothed.

When I heard these words, I sat and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

and herself [as] a widow up to eighty-four years) who did not depart from the temple with fastings and prayers, serving night and day.