“Is a fast such as this what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble himself [with sorrow in his soul]?
Is it only to bow down his head like a reed
And to make sackcloth and ashes as a bed [pretending to have a repentant heart]?
Do you call this a fast and a day pleasing to the Lord?

“Go, gather all the Jews that are present in Susa, and observe a fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids also will fast in the same way. Then I will go in to [see] the king [without being summoned], which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth [month to mourn the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls], the fast of the fifth [month to mourn the temple’s destruction], the fast of the seventh [month to mourn Gedaliah’s assassination], and the fast of the tenth [month to mourn the siege of Jerusalem] will become times of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so [to bring this about] love truth and peace.’

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You do not see it?
Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’
Hear this [O Israel], on the day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins] you find something you desire [to do],
And you force your hired servants to work [instead of stopping all work, as the law teaches].

The great [judgment] day of the Lord is near,
Near and coming very quickly.
Listen! The [voice of the] day of the Lord!
The warrior cries out bitterly [unable to fight or to flee].

Blow a trumpet in Zion [warning of impending judgment],
Dedicate a fast [as a day of restraint and humility], call a solemn assembly.

On the third day [of the fast] Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace opposite his [throne] room. The king was sitting on his royal throne, facing the [main] entrance of the palace.

but you who held tightly to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

But as for you (Daniel), go your way until the end [of your life]; for you will rest and rise again for your allotted inheritance at the end of the age.”

“I hold fast my uprightness and my right standing with God and I will not let them go;
My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

“The facts are that you fast only for strife and brawling and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You do not fast as you do today to make your voice heard on high.

“Also the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble yourselves [by fasting] and present an offering by fire to the Lord.

for the Lord had securely closed the wombs of all [the women] in Abimelech’s household because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

so that he may give (sell) me the cave of Machpelah which he owns—it is at the end of his field; let him give it to me here in your presence for the full price as a burial site [which I may keep forever among you].”

“Blessed (happy, fortunate) is the man who does this,
And the son of man who takes hold of it,
Who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it,
And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

“Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
To minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord,
To be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it
And holds fast to My covenant [by conscientious obedience];

“[Rather] is this not the fast which I choose,
To undo the bonds of wickedness,
To tear to pieces the ropes of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free
And break apart every [enslaving] yoke?

For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.

“Why then has this people of Jerusalem
Turned away with a perpetual turning away [from Me]?
They hold tightly to deceit (idolatry);
They refuse to repent and return [to God].

Though they fast, I will not hear their cry; and though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them [because they are done as obligations, and not as acts of loving obedience]. Instead I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

For Your arrows have sunk into me and penetrate deeply,
And Your hand has pressed down on me and greatly disciplined me.

“A wicked thing is poured out upon him and holds him;
And when he lies down, he will not rise up again.”

Now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast was proclaimed before the Lord for all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah.

So they said to him, “No, we will [only] bind you securely and place you into their hands; but we certainly will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock [of Etam].

He said to her, “If they bind me tightly with new ropes that have not been used, then I will become weak and be like any [other] man.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts,
“The children of Israel are oppressed,
And the children of Judah as well;
And all who took them captive have held them tightly,
They have refused to let them go.

“My lovingkindness I will keep for him forevermore,
And My covenant will be confirmed to him.

But now he is dead; why should I [continue to] fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him [when I die], but he will not return to me.”

Now Absalom met the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a massive tree, and his head was caught in [the thick branches of] the tree; and he was left hanging [in midair] between heaven and earth, while the mule that had been under him kept going.

Ephraim is joined to idols,
So let him alone [to suffer the consequences].

They are upheld forever and ever;
They are done in [absolute] truth and uprightness.

Your faithfulness continues from generation to generation;
You have established the earth, and it stands [securely].

Therefore, return [in repentance] to your God,
Observe and highly regard kindness and justice,
And wait [expectantly] for your God continually.

Consecrate a fast,
Proclaim a solemn assembly,
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
To the house of the Lord your God,
And cry out to the Lord [in penitent pleadings].

Then the sailors were afraid, and each man cried out to his god; and to lighten the ship [and diminish the danger] they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was sound asleep.

The people of Nineveh believed and trusted in God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth [in penitent mourning], from the greatest even to the least of them.

Those who trust in and rely on the Lord [with confident expectation]
Are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but remains forever.

Now in the letters she wrote, “Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people;

They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people.

Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Drive [the animal] fast; do not slow down the pace for me unless I tell you.”

Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man ahead of him [to behead Elisha]; but before the messenger arrived, Elisha told the elders, “Do you see how this son of [Jezebel] a murderer has sent [a man] to remove my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it securely against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet [just] behind him?”

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
And happy [blessed, considered fortunate, to be admired] is everyone who holds her tightly.

He taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
Keep my commandments and live.

For he clung to the Lord; he did not turn away from [faithfully] following Him, but he kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.

Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set himself [determinedly, as his vital need] to seek the Lord; and he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, so that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our children, and all our possessions.

I also applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered together there for the work.

The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered and reflected on My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God [with reverence] and abstains from and turns away from evil [because he honors God]. And still he maintains and holds tightly to his integrity, although you incited Me against him to destroy him without cause.”

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still cling to your integrity [and your faith and trust in God, without blaming Him]? Curse God and die!”

“He trusts in his house, but it does not stand;
He holds tightly to it, but it does not endure.

“My feet have carefully followed His steps;
I have kept His ways and not turned aside.

When the dust hardens into a mass
And the clods stick together [because of the heat]?

“This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month (nearly October) on the tenth day of the month you shall humble yourselves [by fasting] and not do any work, whether the native-born or the stranger who lives temporarily among you;

If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them].

It is to be to you a Sabbath of complete rest, and you shall humble yourselves. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your Sabbath.”

So you go to the Lord’s house on a day of fasting and read from the scroll the words of the Lord to the people which you have written as I dictated. And also you shall read them to all the people of Judah who come from their cities.

Then all the sons of Israel and all the people went up and came to Bethel and wept; and they sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.

So they gathered at Mizpah, 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 Israelites at Mizpah.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with dirt on their heads.

That day is a day of [the outpouring of the] wrath [of God],
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of destruction and devastation,
A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,

Every day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days; on the eighth day there was a [closing] solemn assembly in accordance with the ordinance.

That one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water [made with the ashes of the burned heifer] on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.

‘On the first day of the seventh month, you shall have a holy [summoned] assembly; you shall do no laborious work. It will be for you a day of blowing the trumpets (the shophar, ram’s horn).

“Do not gaze and gloat [in triumph] over your brother’s day,
The day when his misfortune came.
Do not rejoice over the sons of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Do not speak arrogantly [jeering and maliciously mocking]
In the day of their distress.

[In the celebration of the Passover in future years,] seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the leaven from your houses [because it represents the spread of sin]; for whoever eats leavened bread on the first day through the seventh day, that person shall be cut off and excluded from [the atonement made for] Israel.

“For six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord; whoever does any kind of work on that day shall be put to death.

‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month (nearly October), when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a Sabbath rest on the first day and a Sabbath rest on the eighth day.

Now they began the consecration on the first [day] of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the Lord. Then for eight days they consecrated the house of the Lord, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.