On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the prosperity that the LORD had granted to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.

Of this month

So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.

Children

Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.

Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth;

Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

Earth

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads.

A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head.

And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.

And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

General references

Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.

"You are standing today all of you before the LORD your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel,