27 Bible Verses about Fasting, Reasons For

And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, They arose, all the valiant men, 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.

And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul; All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and likewise all the men that were with him: And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.

And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him, Tear your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the coffin. And they buried Abner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept. And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dies?read more.
Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters: as a man falls before wicked men, so fell you. And all the people wept again over him. And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David swore, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, till the sun be down.

And as year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and did eat no food the second day of the month: for he was grieved for David, because his father had caused him shame.

And Ahab came into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid himself down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is your spirit so sad, that you eat no bread? And he said unto her, Because I spoke unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give you my vineyard.

My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh lacks fatness.

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

And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take food, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that you have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.

And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the LORD. And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.

Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and in sackcloth, and earth upon their heads. And the descendants of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshiped the LORD their God.

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and awesome God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and from your judgments:read more.
Neither have we hearkened unto your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;

Gird yourselves, and lament, you priests: wail, you ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God: for the grain offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God. Sanctify you a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.

Therefore also now, says the LORD, turn you even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And tear your hearts, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and relents from sending calamity. Who knows if he will return and have pity, and leave a blessing behind him; even a grain offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?read more.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water:read more.
But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore unto David, and it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.

Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There comes a great multitude against you from beyond the sea on this side of Edom; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar, which is En-gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared, and set his face to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our possessions.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourns for his mother.

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And the children of Israel inquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.

When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the descendants of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood from the books the number of the years, of which the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision. In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks.

Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. And they were more than forty who had made this conspiracy.