Reference: Fasting
American
In all ages, and among all nations, fasting has been practiced in times of sorrow, and affliction, Jon 3:5. It may be regarded as a dictate of nature, which under these circumstances refuses nourishment, and suspends the cravings of hunger. In the Bible no example is mentioned of fasting, properly so-called, before Moses. His forty days' fast, like that of Elijah and of our Lord, was miraculous, De 9:9; 1Ki 19:8; Mt 4:2. The Jews often had recourse to this practice, when they had occasion to humble themselves before God, to confess their sins and deprecate his displeasure, Jg 20:26; 1Sa 7:6; 2Sa 12:16; Ne 9:1; 1Ki 19:8; Jer 36:9. Especially in times of public calamity, they appointed extraordinary fasts, and made even the children at the breast fast, Joe 2:16; Da 10:2-3. They began the observance of their fasts, at sunset, and remained without eating until the same hour the next day. The great day of expiation was probably the only annual and national fast day among them.
It does not appear by his own practice or by his commands, that our Lord instituted any particular fast. On one occasion, he intimated that his disciples would fast after his death, Lu 5:34-35. Accordingly, the life of the apostles and first believers was a life of self-denials, sufferings, and fasting, 2Co 5:7; 11:27. Our Savior recognized the custom, and the apostles practiced it as occasion required, Mt 6:16-18; Ac 13:3; 1Co 7:5.
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When I was gone up onto the mount to receive the tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant which LORD made with you, then I abode on the mount forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
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 in the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.
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
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.
Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the old men. Gather the sons, and those who suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
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 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. But when thou fast, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, read more. so that thou may not appear fasting to men, but to thy Father in secret. And thy Father, who sees in secret, will reward thee.
And he said to them, Ye cannot make the sons of the wedding hall fast while the bridegroom is with them. But the days will also come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.
Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away.
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
in toil and hardship, in frequent sleeplessness, in hunger and thirst, in frequent fasts, in cold and nakedness.
Fausets
The word (tsum) never occurs in the Pentateuch. The Mosaic law, though directing minutely the foods to be eaten and to be shunned, never enjoins fasting. The false asceticism so common in the East was carefully avoided. On the yearly day of atonement, the 10th day of the 7th month, Israelites were directed to "afflict the soul" (Le 16:29-31; 23:27; Nu 30:13). This significant term implies that the essence of scriptural "fasting" lies in self humiliation and penitence, and that the precise mode of subduing the flesh to the spirit, and of expressing sorrow for sin, is left to the conscientious discretion of each person. In Ac 27:9 the yearly day of atonement is popularly designated "the fast."
But God, while not discountenancing outward acts of sorrow expressive of inward penitence, declares, "is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal the bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest thy naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" (Isa 58:4-7.) Compare similar warnings against mistaking outward fasting as meritorious before God: Mal 3:14; Mt 6:16.
The only other periodical fasts in the Old Testament were those connected with the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar: the fast of the 4th month commemorated its capture (Jer 39:2; 52:6-7); that of the 5th month the burning of the temple and the chief houses (Jer 52:12-14); that of the 7th the murder of Gedaliah (Jer 41:1-3); that of the 10th the beginning of the siege (Zec 7:3-5; 8:19). Jer 52:4, "did ye at all fast unto ME, even to ME?" Nay, it was to gratify yourselves in hypocritical will worship. If it had been to Me, ye would have separated yourselves not merely from food but from your sins.
Once that the principle is acted on, "he that eateth eateth to the Lord, and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not" (Ro 14:6), and "meat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse" (1Co 8:8), fasting and eating are put in their true place, as means not ends. There are now 28 yearly fasts in the Jewish calendar. Daniel's (Da 10:3) mode of fasting was, "I ate no pleasant bread," i.e. "I ate unleavened bread, even the bread of affliction" (De 16:3), "neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth." In Mt 9:14 "fast" is explained by "mourn" in Mt 9:15, so that fasting was but an outward expression of mourning (Ps 69:10), not meritorious, nor sanctifying in itself.
A mark of the apostasy is "commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving" (1Ti 4:3). The "neglecting (not sparing) of the body," while seeming to deny self, really tends "to the satisfying of (satiating to repletion) the flesh." Ordinances of "will worship" gratify the flesh (self) while seeming to mortify it; for "self crowned with thorns in the cloister is as selfish as self crowned with ivy in the revel" (Col 2:18-23). Instances of special fasts of individuals and of the people in the Old Testament, either in mourning and humiliation or in prayer, occur in Jg 20:26; 1Sa 1:7; 20:34; 31:13; 2Sa 1:12; 12:21; 3:35; 1Ki 21:9-12; Ezr 8:21-23; 10:6; Es 4:16; Ne 1:4.
National fasts are alluded to in 1Sa 7:6 (wherein the drawing of water and pouring it out before Jehovah expressed their confession of powerlessness and utter prostration: Ps 22:14; 58:7; 2Sa 14:14); 2Ch 20:3; Jer 36:6-10; Ne 9:1; Joe 1:14; 2:15. In New Testament times the strict Jews fasted twice a week (Lu 18:12), namely, on the second and fifth days. While Christ is with His people either in body or in spirit, fasting is unseasonable, for joy alone can be where He is; but when His presence is withdrawn, sorrow comes to the believer and fasting is one mode of expressing his sorrowing after the Lord. This is Christ's teaching, Mt 9:15. As to the texts quoted for fasting as a mean of spiritual power, the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts omit Mt 17:21; they omit also "and fasting," Mr 9:29. They and Alexandrinus manuscript omit "fasting and," 1Co 7:5. Evidently the growing tendency to asceticism in post apostolic times accounts for these interpolations.
The apostles "prayed with fasting" in ordaining elders (Ac 13:3; 14:23). But this continuance of the existing Jewish usage never divinely ordered does not make it obligatory on us, except in so far as we severally, by experience, find it conducive to prayer. Moses', Elijah's, and Christ's (the great Antitype) 40 days' foodlessness was exceptional and miraculous. Forty is significant of punishment for sin, confession, or affliction. Christ, the true Israel, denied Himself for 40 days, as Israel indulged the flesh 40 years. They tempted God that time; He overcame the tempter all the 40 days (Ge 7:4,12; Nu 14:33; 32:13-14; Ps 95:10; De 25:3; 2Co 11:24; Eze 29:11; 4:6; Jon 3:4).
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For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will destroy from off the face of the ground.
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
And it shall be a statute forever to you. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home-born, or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you. Ye shall be clean from all your sins before LORD. read more. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and ye shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.
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.
And your sons shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.
Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.
And LORD's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander to and fro in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of LORD was consumed. And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of LORD toward Israel.
Thou shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days thou shall eat unleavened bread with it, even the bread of affliction, for thou came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, that thou may remember the day when thou came forth
He may give him forty stripes. He shall not exceed, lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem debased to thee.
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.
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.
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
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
Let them melt away as water that runs with haste. When he aims his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off,
When I wept in my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.
Forty years long I was grieved with [that] generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.
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. Is such the fast that I have chosen, the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to LORD? read more. Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to a hungry man, and that thou bring the poor who are cast out to thy house, when thou see a naked man, that thou cover him, and that thou not hide thyself from thine own flesh?
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.
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city.
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. read more. Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with him, [namely], with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.
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. read more. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.
And again, when thou have accomplished these, thou shall lay on thy right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, each day for a year. I have appointed it to thee.
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it. Neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
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.
Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the old men [and] all the inhabitants of the land to the house of LORD your God, and cry to LORD.
Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. And he cried out, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
[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, read more. 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?
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
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before LORD of hosts?
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 the disciples of John come to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said to them, The sons of the wedding hall cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
And Jesus said to them, The sons of the wedding hall cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
And he said to them, This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.
I fast twice per Sabbath. I tithe all things, as many as I acquire.
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,
He who regards the day, regards it for Lord. And he who does not regard the day, for Lord he does not regard it. And he who eats, eats for Lord, for he expresses thanks to God. And he who does not eat, for Lord he does not eat, and
Do not defraud each other except from agreement for a time, so that ye may have time for fasting and prayer. And come together again for the same thing, so that Satan not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
But food does not present us to God, for neither if we eat are we ahead, nor if we do not eat are we behind.
Let no man umpire against you insisting on self-mortification, and worship of the heavenly agents, intruding in things that he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding to the head, from whom all the body, being supplied and held together through the connections and bonds, develops its growth from God. read more. If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why do ye submit to rules, as though living in the world? Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch (which are all things for consumption by use), according to the commandments and teachings of men? Which having, are indeed a matter of wisdom in will-worship, and self-mortification, and austerity of the body--not in any value against indulgence of the flesh.
forbidding to marry, to abstain from foods, which God created for partaking with thankfulness by those who believe and know the truth.
Hastings
FASTING
1. In the OT.
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And it shall be a statute forever to you. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home-born, or the stranger who sojourns among you.
And it shall be a statute forever to you. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home-born, or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you. Ye shall be clean from all your sins before LORD. read more. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and ye shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.
It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and ye shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.
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.
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.
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.
And on the tenth day of this seventh month ye shall have a holy convocation, and ye shall afflict your souls. Ye shall do no manner of work.
And on the tenth day of this seventh month ye shall have a holy convocation, and ye shall afflict your souls. Ye shall do no manner of work.
Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.
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.
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
David therefore besought God for the child. And David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the ground.
David therefore besought God for the child. And David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the ground. And the elders of his house arose, [and stood] beside him, to raise him up from the ground, but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it. And they built forts
Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
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.
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,
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, and said, I beseech thee, O LORD, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments: read more. Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou may hearken to the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee at this time, day and night, for the sons of Israel thy servants while I confess the sins of the sons We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which thou commanded thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commanded thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples, but if ye return to me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the outermost part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name Now these are thy servants and thy people whom thou have redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. O LORD, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name, and, I pray thee, prosper thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight
So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinim, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities. And when the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in their cities.
Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.
And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of LORD their God a fourth part of the day, and [another] fourth part they confessed, and worshipped LORD their God.
And yet for all this we make a sure covenant, and write it, and our rulers, our Levites, [and] our priests, seal to it.
But as for me, when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosom.
Why have we fasted, [they say], and thou see not? We have afflicted our soul, and thou take no knowledge. Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact from all your laborers.
Is such the fast that I have chosen, the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to LORD?
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city.
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
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.
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 I set my face to LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
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. 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,
[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, read more. 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?
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
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 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. But when thou fast, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, read more. so that thou may not appear fasting to men, but to thy Father in secret. And thy Father, who sees in secret, will reward thee.
Then the disciples of John come to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said to them, The sons of the wedding hall cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. read more. And no man puts a patch of new cloth upon an old garment, for the patch of it pulls from the garment, and a tear becomes worse. Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins will perish. But they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.
But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
And John's disciples and those of the Pharisees were fasting. And they come and say to him, Why do John's disciples and those of the Pharisees fast, but the disciples with you do not fast? And Jesus said to them, The sons of the wedding hall cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them. As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. read more. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will they fast in those day. And no man sews a new patch of cloth on an old garment, otherwise the patch of it pulls away, the new from the old, and a tear becomes worse. And no man puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine bursts the wineskins, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
And he said to them, This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.
And they said to him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make supplications, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink. And he said to them, Ye cannot make the sons of the wedding hall fast while the bridegroom is with them. read more. But the days will also come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. And he also spoke a parable to them. No man puts a patch of a new garment on an old garment, otherwise both the new tears, and that from the new will not blend with the old. And no man puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the wineskins, and will itself be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved together. And no man having drunk old straightaway desires new, for he says, The old is better.
I fast twice per Sabbath. I tithe all things, as many as I acquire.
And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour, and the ninth hour praying in my house. And behold, a man stood before me in bright apparel.
And while they were serving the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Separate to me now Barnabas and Saul for the work that I have called them.
And having appointed elders for them in every congregation, having prayed with fasting, they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.
in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hungerings,
in toil and hardship, in frequent sleeplessness, in hunger and thirst, in frequent fasts, in cold and nakedness.
Watsons
FASTING has been practised in all ages, and among all nations, in times of mourning, sorrow, and affliction. We see no example of fasting, properly so called, before Moses. Since the time of Moses, examples of fasting have been very common among the Jews. Joshua and the elders of Israel remained prostrate before the ark from morning till evening, without eating, after Israel was defeated at Ai, Jos 7:6. The eleven tribes which fought against that of Benjamin, fell down on their faces before the ark, and so continued till evening without eating, Jg 20:26. David fasted while the first child he had by Bathsheba was sick, 2Sa 12:16. The Heathens sometimes fasted: the king of Nineveh, terrified by Jonah's preaching, ordered that not only men, but also beasts, should continue without eating or drinking; should be covered with sackcloth, and each after their manner should cry to the Lord, Jon 3:5-6. The Jews, in times of public calamity, appointed extraordinary fasts, and made even the children at the breast fast, Joe 2:16. Moses fasted forty days upon Mount Horeb, Ex 24:18. Elijah passed as many days without eating, 1Ki 19:8. Our Saviour fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, Mt 4:2. These fasts were miraculous, and out of the common rules of nature.
2. Beside the solemn fast of expiation instituted by divine authority, the Jews appointed certain days of humiliation, called the fasts of the congregation. The calamities for which these were enjoined, were a siege, pestilence, diseases, famine, &c. They were observed on the second and fifth days of the week: they began at sunset, and continued till midnight of the following day. On these days they wore sackcloth next the skin, and rent their clothes; they sprinkled ashes on their heads, and neither washed their hands, nor anointed their heads with oil. The synagogues were filled with suppliants, whose prayers were long and mournful, and their countenances dejected with all the marks of sorrow and repentance.
3. As to the fasts observed by Christians, it does not appear by his own practice, or by his commands to his disciples, that our Lord instituted any particular fast. But when the Pharisees reproached him, that his disciples did not fast so often as theirs, or as John the Baptist's, he replied, "Can ye make the children of the bride-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bride-groom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days," Lu 5:34-35. Fasting is also recommended by our Saviour in his sermon on the mount; not as a stated, but as an occasional, duty of Christians, for the purpose of humbling their minds under the afflicting hand of God; and he requires that this duty be performed in sincerity, and not for the sake of ostentation, Mt 6:16.
4. Although Christians, says Dr. Neander, did not by any means retire from the business of life, yet they were accustomed to devote many separate days entirely to examining their own hearts, and pouring them out before God, while they dedicated their life anew to him with uninterrupted prayers, in order that they might again return to their ordinary occupations with a renovated spirit of zeal and seriousness, and with renewed powers of sanctification. These days of holy devotion, days of prayer and penitence, which individual Christians appointed for themselves, according to their individual necessities, were often a kind of fast-days. In order that their sensual feelings might less distract and impede the occupation of their heart with its holy contemplations, they were accustomed on these days to limit their corporeal wants more than usual, or to fast entirely. In the consideration of this, we must not overlook the peculiar nature of that hot climate in which Christianity was first promulgated. That which was spared by their abstinence on these days was applied to the support of the poorer brethren.
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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 Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, and they put dust upon their heads.
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.
David therefore besought God for the child. And David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the ground.
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.
Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the old men. Gather the sons, and those who suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
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.
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.
And he said to them, Ye cannot make the sons of the wedding hall fast while the bridegroom is with them. But the days will also come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.