33 Bible Verses about Fasting, Nature Of

Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib: and [when] he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of the trespass of them of the captivity.

I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

[as] he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of Yahweh, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him: and his sleep fled from him.

It shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall deny yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your Sabbath."

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.

They mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Yahweh, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.

He was without sight for three days, and neither ate nor drank.

They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

all the valiant men arose, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the earth. The elders of his house arose, [and stood] beside him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. It happened on the seventh day, that the child died. The servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he didn't listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?"read more.
But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" They said, "He is dead." Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothing; and he came into the house of Yahweh, and worshiped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he ate.

He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the Mount of God.

When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.

for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.

"It shall be a statute to you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no kind of work, the native-born, or the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you: for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before Yahweh. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls; it is a statute forever.

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "However on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. You shall do no kind of work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God.read more.
For whoever it is who shall not deny himself in that same day; shall be cut off from his people. Whoever it is who does any kind of work in that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no kind of work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall deny yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your Sabbath."

"'On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; and you shall afflict your souls: you shall do no kind of work;

When much time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, because the Fast had now already gone by, Paul admonished them,

Thus says Yahweh of Armies: "The fasts of the fourth fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall be for the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace."

The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech, and their men, to entreat Yahweh's favor, and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies, and to the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?" Then the word of Yahweh of Armies came to me, saying,read more.
"Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?

The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: 'God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.'

Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

The men of Israel were distressed that day; for Saul had adjured the people, saying, "Cursed is the man who eats any food until it is evening, and I am avenged of my enemies." So none of the people tasted food.

The man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half of your house, I would not go in with you, neither would I eat bread nor drink water in this place; for so was it commanded me by the word of Yahweh, saying, 'You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, neither return by the way that you came.'"

She wrote in the letters, saying, "Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.

Now it happened in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before Yahweh.

While the day was coming on, Paul begged them all to take some food, saying, "This day is the fourteenth day that you wait and continue fasting, having taken nothing.

in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;

in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

It happened, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn't depart from the temple, worshipping with fastings and petitions night and day.