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?

Go, assemble 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 likewise; and so will I go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.

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.

Thus saith the 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 the truth and peace.

Why have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors.

Speak to 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 to me, even to me?

Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

Then said his servants to him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but after the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.

But now he is dead, Why should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry to the LORD,

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god, and cast the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah had gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

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.

But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away my head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?

And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people:

They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.

And 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 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.

And the LORD said to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and shunneth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

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?

He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Why then hath this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?

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

For thy arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand falleth heavy upon me.

An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast to him: and now that he lieth he shall rise no more.

Who by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power:

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 in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.

Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour around thee.

The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.

My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.

And they spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.

Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep, and weary. So he died.

They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.

Then said Boaz to Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:

And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said to me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean to the end of barley-harvest and of wheat-harvest; and dwelt with her mother-in-law.

And he said to her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were used, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

And they assembled at Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and there said, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.

Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.

Therefore go thou and read in 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 thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to 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.

That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasting and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according to the manner.

But thou shouldst not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldst thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldst thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he shall not purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eateth leavened bread, from the first day till the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

Son of man, Write for thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.

For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.