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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
When I climbed 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, without eating bread or drinking water;
Then all the sons 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.
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 it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people of Jerusalem and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three weeks of days. I ate no pleasant bread, neither did flesh nor wine come into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all until the three weeks of days were fulfilled.
gather the people, sanctify the meeting, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.
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.
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward. But thou, when thou dost fast, anoint thine head, and wash thy face read more. that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who sees in secret, shall reward thee openly.
And he said unto them, Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they released them.
(for we walk by faith, not by sight).
in labour and travail, in many watches, in hunger and thirst, in many 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).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
For yet in seven days, I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every substance that I have made I will destroy from off the face of the earth.
And there was rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
And you shall hold this as a perpetual statute: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether it is a natural of your own country or a stranger that sojourns among you; for on that day he shall reconcile you to cleanse you that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. read more. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a perpetual statute.
But the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of reconciliations; it shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made on fire unto the LORD.
And your children shall be shepherded in the wilderness forty years and bear your fornications until your carcasses are wasted 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 the LORD's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was consumed. And, behold, ye are risen up in the place of your fathers, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel.
Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou didst come forth out of the land of Egypt in haste; that thou may remember the day when thou didst come forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.
Forty stripes he may give him and not exceed lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should be despised before thee.
Then all the sons 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 they gathered together in Mizpeh 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 sons of Israel in Mizpeh.
Then Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the LORD and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to defend us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all those that seek him for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those that forsake him. read more. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us.
Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Johanan, the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of the transgression of those that had been carried away.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of the heavens
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 for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so I will go in unto the king, even though this is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
When I wept with fasting of my soul, thou hast been a reproach unto me.
Forty years long I was grieved with this generation and said, It is a people that err from the heart, who have not known my ways;
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the LORD? read more. Is not rather the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the ties of oppression, to release into freedom those who are broken, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to share thy bread with the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou not hide thyself from thy brother?
therefore go thou, and read from the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD's house upon the day of fasting: and also in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. Thou shalt read them if peradventure their prayer will fall into the presence of the LORD, and they shall turn each one from his evil way; for great is the anger and the fury that the 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 the LORD in the LORD's house. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people of Jerusalem and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem. Then Baruch read in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD's house, in the ears of all the people.
And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, and some princes of the king, and ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam in Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword and slew him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. read more. Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with Gedaliah at Mizpah and the Chaldean soldiers that were found there.
Therefore it came to pass after nine years 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 pitched camp against it and built forts against it round about.
And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine prevailed in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was breached, 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, and they went by the way of the desert, even though the Chaldeans were by the city round about.
And in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem and burned the house of the LORD and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burned with fire: read more. And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, destroyed all the walls of Jerusalem round about.
And when thou hast accomplished them, thou shalt sleep on thy right side this second time, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: a day for a year; I have appointed thee each day for a year.
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 did flesh nor wine come into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all until the three weeks of days were fulfilled.
Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the earth into the house of the LORD your God and cry unto the LORD.
Blow the shofar in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.
and to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of the hosts and to the prophets, saying, Should we weep in the fifth month? Should we do abstinence as we have done these so many years? Then the word of the LORD of the hosts came unto me, saying, read more. Speak unto all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, 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 the truth and peace.
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his law and that we walk mournfully before the LORD of the hosts?
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples do not fast? And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast.
And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast.
Howbeit this lineage of demons does not go out but by prayer and fasting.
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
I fast two meals every sabbath; I give tithes of all that I possess.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they released them.
And having ordained elders for them in every congregation and having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.
Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them,
He that observes the day, let him observe it unto the Lord; and he that does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He that eats, eats unto the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he that does not eat, unto the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
Do not defraud one another, except it be with mutual consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again, that Satan not tempt you for your incontinency.
But food does not make us more acceptable unto God; for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse.
Let no one govern you according to their own will under pretext of humility and religion of angels, intruding into those things which they have not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, fed and united by its joints and bonds, grows in the increase of God. read more. For if ye are dead with the Christ to the elements of the world, why, as though living unto the world, do ye decree rites, touch not; taste not; handle not? Which all perish with the using, because they are the commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body, but they have absolutely no value against the appetites of the flesh.
they shall forbid to marry and shall command men to abstain from foods, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who are faithful and have known the truth.
Hastings
FASTING
1. In the OT.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And you shall hold this as a perpetual statute: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether it is a natural of your own country or a stranger that sojourns among you;
And you shall hold this as a perpetual statute: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether it is a natural of your own country or a stranger that sojourns among you; for on that day he shall reconcile you to cleanse you that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. read more. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a perpetual statute.
It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a perpetual statute.
But the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of reconciliations; it shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made on fire unto the LORD.
It shall be unto you a sabbath of sabbaths, and ye shall afflict your souls, beginning in the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening unto evening, shall ye rest on your sabbath.
It shall be unto you a sabbath of sabbaths, and ye shall afflict your souls, beginning in the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening unto evening, shall ye rest on your sabbath.
And ye shall have on the tenth of this seventh month a holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls; ye shall not do any work;
And ye shall have on the tenth of this seventh month a holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls; ye shall not do any 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 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 they took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days.
David, therefore, besought God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth.
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.
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 host, against Jerusalem and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.
And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, which was the year nineteen of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a slave of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to defend us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all those that seek him for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those that forsake him. read more. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of the heavens
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of the heavens and said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of the heavens, strong, great and terrible, who keeps covenant and mercy for those that love thee and observe thy commandments; read more. let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open, that thou may hear the prayer of thy slave, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the sons of Israel, thy slaves, and I confess the sins of the sons of Israel, with which we have sinned against thee; both I and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgments, which thou didst command thy slave Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou didst command thy slave Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples; but if ye turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from there and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to cause my name to dwell there. Now these are thy slaves and thy people, whom thou hast ransomed with thy great power and with thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy slave and to the prayer of thy slaves who desire to fear thy name; and prosper, I pray thee, thy slave this day, and grant him grace before this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.
So the priests and the Levites and the porters and the singers and those of the people and the Nethinims 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 the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the LORD their God.
And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests seal unto it.
But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer rose up in my bosom.
Why have we fasted, they say, and thou dost not see? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou dost take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure and exact your own estates.
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the LORD?
And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, and some princes of the king, and ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam in Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah.
Therefore it came to pass after nine years 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 pitched camp against it and built forts against it round about.
And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine prevailed in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
And in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem
And I turned my face unto the Lord God, seeking him in prayer and supplication, in fasting and sackcloth, and ashes:
For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he threw 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 any thing; let them not feed, nor drink water:
and to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of the hosts and to the prophets, saying, Should we weep in the fifth month? Should we do abstinence as we have done these so many years? Then the word of the LORD of the hosts came unto me, saying, read more. Speak unto all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, 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 the truth and peace.
Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, 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 the truth and peace.
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward. But thou, when thou dost fast, anoint thine head, and wash thy face read more. that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who sees in secret, shall reward thee openly.
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples do not fast? And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast. read more. No one mends an old garment with a piece of new cloth, for that patch takes from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wineskins break, and the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish; but they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved together.
Howbeit this lineage of demons does not go out but by prayer and fasting.
And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees did fast and therefore came and said unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can those who are in a wedding 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 shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days. No one mends an old garment with a new piece of cloth, or else the new piece that filled it up tears away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are lost; but new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
Then they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink? And he said unto them, Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? read more. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. And he also spoke a parable unto them: No one takes a piece of a new garment to mend an old one; if otherwise, then the new one is rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new does not agree with the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled and the wineskins shall perish. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. No one also having drunk of the old straightway desires the new, for he says, The old is better.
I fast two meals every sabbath; I give tithes of all that I possess.
And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work unto which I have called them.
And having ordained elders for them in every congregation and having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.
in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings,
in labour and travail, in many watches, in hunger and thirst, in many 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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mount, and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
Then Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, putting dust upon their heads.
Then all the sons 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.
David, therefore, besought God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth.
And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God.
gather the people, sanctify the meeting, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.
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 threw his robe from him and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.
And he said unto them, Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.