Reference: Fast
Easton
The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Le 23:26-32. It is called "the fast" (Ac 27:9).
The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old Testament is in Zec 7:1-7; 8:19, from which it appears that during their captivity the Jews observed four annual fasts.
(1.) The fast of the fourth month, kept on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, the anniversary of the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; to commemorate also the incident recorded Ex 32:19. (Comp. Jer 52:6-7.)
(2.) The fast of the fifth month, kept on the ninth of Ab (comp. Nu 14:27), to commemorate the burning of the city and temple (Jer 52:12-13).
(3.) The fast of the seventh month, kept on the third of Tisri (comp. 2Ki 25), the anniversary of the murder of Gedaliah (Jer 41:1-2).
(4.) The fast of the tenth month (comp. Jer 52:4; Eze 33:21; 2Ki 25:1), to commemorate the beginning of the siege of the holy city by Nebuchadnezzar.
There was in addition to these the fast appointed by Esther (Es 4:16).
Public national fasts on account of sin or to supplicate divine favour were sometimes held. (1.) 1Sa 7:6; (2.) 2Ch 20:3; (3.) Jer 36:6-10; (4.) Ne 9:1.
There were also local fasts. (1.) Jg 20:26; (2.) 2Sa 1:12; (3.) 1Sa 31:13; (4.) 1Ki 21:9-12; (5.) Ezr 8:21-23: (6.) Jon 3:5-9.
There are many instances of private occasional fasting (1Sa 1:1; 20:34; 2Sa 3:35; 12:16; 1Ki 21:27; Ezr 10:6; Ne 1:4; Da 10:2-3). Moses fasted forty days (Ex 24:18; 34:28), and so also did Elijah (1Ki 19:8). Our Lord fasted forty days in the wilderness (Mt 4:2).
In the lapse of time the practice of fasting was lamentably abused (Isa 58:4; Jer 14:12; Zec 7:5). Our Lord rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocritical pretences in fasting (Mt 6:16). He himself appointed no fast. The early Christians, however, observed the ordinary fasts according to the law of their fathers (Ac 13:3; 14:23; 2Co 6:5).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up onto the mount. And Moses was on the mount forty days and forty nights.
And it came to pass, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses' anger grew hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mount.
And he was there with LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread, nor drank water, and he wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
And LORD 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 ye shall afflict your souls, and ye shall offer an offering made by fire to LORD. read more. And ye shall do no manner of work in that same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before LORD your God. For whatever soul it be who shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. And whatever soul it be who does any manner of work in that same day, that soul I will destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and ye shall afflict your souls. In the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, ye shall keep your Sabbath.
How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against me.
Then all the sons of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before LORD, and fasted that day until evening, and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before LORD.
Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill-country of Ephraim. And his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, and Ephraimite.
And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against LORD. And Samuel judged the sons of Israel in Mizpah.
So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David because his father had done him shame.
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of LORD, and for the house of Israel, because they were fallen by the sword.
And 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.
And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. And set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them bear witness against him, saying, Thou cursed God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him to death. read more. And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.
And Jehoshaphat was afraid, and set himself to seek for LORD. And he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all those who seek him, for good, but his power an read more. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was entreated by us.
Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber 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 those of the captivit
And it came to pass, 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,
Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.
Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast in like manner. And so I will go in to the king, which is not acc
Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye do not fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
When they fast, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou have written from my mouth, the words of LORD in the ears of the people in LORD's house upon the fast-day. And also thou shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of t It may be they will present their supplication before LORD, and will return each one from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that LORD has pronounced against this people. read more. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of LORD in LORD's house. Now it came to pass 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 Then Baruch read in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of LORD's house, in the ears of all the people.
Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal and [one of] the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, an Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, arose and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army against Jerusalem, and encamped against it. And they built forts a
In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden, (now the Chaldeans were against the city round a
Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem. And he burned the house of LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Even every great house, he burned with fire.
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, that [a man] who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city is smitten.
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three whole weeks. I ate no pleasant bread. Neither flesh nor wine came into my mouth. Neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
And the people of Nineveh believed God, and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. read more. And he made proclamation 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, but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily to God. Yea, let them turn each one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we not perish?
And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of LORD came to Zechariah in the fourth [day] of the ninth month, even in Chislev. Now [those of] Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to entreat the favor of LORD, read more. [and] to speak to the priests of the house of LORD of hosts, 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 LORD of hosts came to me, saying, Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh [month], even these seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, even to me?
Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh [month], even these seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, even to me? And when ye eat, and when ye drink, do ye not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? read more. [Should ye] not [hear] the words which LORD cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?
Thus says LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth [month], and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah, joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth
And having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward he was hungry.
And when ye fast, become not like the gloomy looking hypocrites, for they make their faces unsightly, so that they may appear fasting to men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.
Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away.
And having appointed elders for them in every congregation, having prayed with fasting, they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.
And considerable time having past, and the voyage now being dangerous, also because the Fast was now past, Paul urged,