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 will come into the midst of the cloud, and will go up to the mountain: and Moses will be in the mountain forty days and forty nights.
And it will be when he drew near to the camp, and he will see the calf and the lute: and the wrath of Moses will kindle, and he will cast the tables out of his hand, and he will break them under the mount
And he will be there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights; he ate not bread and drank not water. And he will write upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten words.
And Jehovah will speak to Moses, saying, But in this tenth of the seventh month, a day of expiation; shall be a holy calling to you, and ye humbled your souls, and brought a sacrifice to Jehovah. read more. And any work ye shall not do in that self-same day, for it is a day of expiation, to expiate for you before Jehovah your God. For every soul which shall not be humbled in, that same day, and it was cut off from its people. And any soul which shall do any work in that same day, I destroyed that soul from the midst of its people. Any work ye shall not do: a law forever to your generations in all your dwellings. A Sabbath of rest it is to you; ye humbled your souls: in the ninth of the month, in the evening, from evening to evening shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.
How long for this evil assembly, that they are murmuring against me? the murmurings of the sons of Israel which they are murmuring against me, I heard.
And all the sons of Israel and all the people will go up, and they will come to the house of God, and they will weep, and they will sit there before Jehovah, and they will fast in that day till the evening, and they will bring up burnt-offerings and peace before Jehovah.
And there will be one man from Ramathaim-Zophim, from mount Ephraim, and his name Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:
And they will gather together to Mizpeh, and draw water and pour out before Jehovah; and they will fast in that day and say there, We sinned against Jehovah. And Samuel will judge the sons of Israel in Mizpeh.
And Jonathan will rise from the table in the heat of wrath, and he will not eat bread in the day of the month the second, for he was grieved for David because his father reproached him.
And they will take their bones and bury under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they will fast seven days.
And they will mourn and weep, and fast, even till the evening, for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Jehovah and for the house of Israel, because they fell by the sword.
And he will rise and eat and drink, and go in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, even to the mountain of God, Horeb.
And she will write in the letters, Saying, Call a fast; set Naboth in the head of the people: And set two men, sons of Belial, over against him, and they shall bear witness, saying, Thou didst praise God and the king. And they shall bring him forth and stone him, and he shall die. read more. And the men of his city, the old men and the nobles, who were dwelling in his city, will do as Jezebel sent to them, according to what was written in the letters which she sent to them. They called a fast; they will set Naboth upon the head of the people.
And Jehoshaphat will fear, and he will give his face to seek to Jehovah, and he will call a fast for all Judah.
And I shall call a fast there, upon the river Ahava, to humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a straight way for us and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to ask from the king strength and horsemen to help us from the enemy in the way: for we said to the king, saying, The hand of our God upon all seeking him for good; and his strength and his anger against all forsaking him. read more. And we will fast and seek of our God concerning this; and he will be entreated for us.
And Ezra will rise up from before the house of God, and will go the chamber of Johanan son of Eliashib: and he will go there, he ate not bread and drank not water: for he was mourning for the transgression of the exiles.
And it will be in my hearing these words, I sat down, and I shall weep and mourn days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of the heavens,
And in the twenty and fourth day to this month, the sons of Israel were gathered together with fasting and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
Go collect together all the Jews being found in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and ye shall not eat and ye shall not drink three days, night and day also I and my maidens will fast thus and in this I will go in to the king which is not according to the edict; and according to that I perished, I perished.
behold, for contention and strife ye will fast, and to strike with the fist of injustice: ye shall not fast as today to cause your voice to be heard on high.
When they shall fast I hear not their outcry; and when they shall bring up a burnt-offering and gift, I accept them not; for with the sword and by famine and by death I consume them.
And go thou and read in the roll which thou wrotest from my mouth, the words of Jehovah in the ears of the people in the house of Jehovah in the day of fasting: and also in the ears of all Judah coming from their cities thou shalt read them. Perhaps their mercy will fall before the face of Jehovah, and they will turn back each from his evil way: for great the anger and the wrath which Jehovah spake against this people. read more. And Baruch son of Neriah will do according to all which Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, to read in the book the words of Jehovah in the house of Jehovah. And it will be in the fifth year to Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, they called a fast before Jehovah to all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people coming from the cities of Judah into Jerusalem. And Baruch will read in the book all the words of Jeremiah hi the house of Jehovah in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the enclosure the highest of the entrance of the new gate of the house of Jehovah, in the ears of all the people.
And it will be in the seventh month, came Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, from the seed of the kingdom, and the chiefs of the king, and ten men with him, to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, to Mizpeh, and there will they eat bread together in Mizpeh. And Ishmael son of Nethaniah will rise, and the ten men which were with him, and they will strike Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, with the sword, and he will kill him whom the king of Babel appointed over the land.
And it will be in the ninth year to his reigning, in the tenth month, in the tenth to the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem and they will encamp against her, and a watchtower against her round about
In the fourth month, in the ninth to the month, and the famine will be strong in the city, and there was not bread for the people of the land. And the city will be broken up, and all the men of war will flee and will go forth from the city by night, the way of the gate between the walls, which was by the king's garden; (and the Chaldeans upon the city round about:) and they will go the way of the sterile region.
And in the fifth month, in the tenth to the month, this year the nineteenth year to king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel, came Nebuzaradan, chief of the cooks, standing before the face of the king of Babel, into Jerusalem, And he will burn the house of Jehovah, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burnt in fire:
And it will be in the twelfth year, in the tenth, in the fifth to the month, to our captivity, he having escaped from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city was struck.
And in these days I Daniel was mourning three weeks of days. Bread of desires I ate not, and flesh and wine came not into my mouth, and anointing, I did not anoint myself even to the filling up of three weeks of days.
And the men of Nineveh will believe in God, and they will call a fast, and put on sackcloth, from great and even to small. And the word will reach to the king of Nineveh, and he will rise from his throne, and he will take away his wide cloak from off him, and he will cover with sackcloth, and he will sit upon ashes. read more. And he will cry out and say in Nineveh from the edict of the king and of his great ones, saying, The man and beast, the herd and flock shall not taste of anything; they shall not feed and they shall not drink water. And man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry with strength to Jehovah: and they shall turn back each from his evil way, and the violence which is in their hands. Who shall know God will turn back and lament, and turning back from the burning of his anger and we shall not perish?
And it will be in the fourth year to Darius the king, the word of Jehovah was to Zechariah in the fourth to the ninth month, in Chisleu; And he will send to the house of God, the chief of the treasure, and the friend of the king, and his men to beseech the face of Jehovah. read more. To speak to the priests which were to the house of Jehovah of armies, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself according as I did, how many the years? And the word of Jehovah of armies was to me, saying, Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh, and this seventy years, fasting, fasted ye to me, me?
Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh, and this seventy years, fasting, fasted ye to me, me? And when ye shall eat, and when ye shall drink, are ye not eating, and are ye not drinking? read more. Is it not the words which Jehovah called by the hand of the former prophets in Jerusalem being inhabited and in security, and its cities round about her, and inhabiting the south and the low country?
Thus said Jehovah of armies: The fast of the fourth, 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 for joy and for gladness, and for good appointments; and love ye truth and peace.
And having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.
And when ye fast, be not, as hypocrites, of gloomy aspect: for they conceal their faces that they might appear to men fasting. Verily I say to you, That they have their reward.
Then having fasted and prayed, and put hands upon them, they let go.
And having chosen them elders in the church, having prayed with fasting, they set them before the Lord, in whom they had believed.
And a suitable time having intervened, and sailing being already dangerous, for the fast had already passed by, Paul advised,