27 Bible Verses about Fasting, Reasons For

And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard concerning him, that which the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them, and likewise all the men who were with him. And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of LORD, and for the house of Israel, because they were fallen by the sword.

And David said to Joab, and to all the people who were with him, Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David followed the bier. And they buried Abner in Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept. And the king lamented for Abner, and said, Should Abner die as a fool dies?read more.
Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters. As a man falls before the sons of iniquity, so did thou fall. And all the people wept again over him. And all the people came to cause David to eat bread while it was yet day, but David swore, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, till the sun is down.

And [as] he did so year by year when she went up to the house of LORD, so she provoked her. Therefore she wept, and did not eat.

So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David because his father had done him shame.

And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid himself down upon his bed, and tu But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, Why is thy spirit so sad that thou eat no bread? And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, Give me thy vineyard for money, or else, if it please thee, I will give thee [another] vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give thee my vineyar

My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails of fatness.

Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting, nor were instruments of music brought before him. And his sleep fled from him.

And until day was going to develop, Paul urged them all to partake of food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day, waiting, ye continue without food, having taken nothing.

And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you to 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.

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 the seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. 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 I set my face to LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to LORD my God, and made confession, and said, Oh, LORD, the great and fearful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from thy precepts and from thine ordinances,read more.
nor have we hearkened to thy servants the prophets, who spoke in thy name to our kings, our rulers, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God,

Gird yourselves [with sackcloth], and lament, ye priests. Wail, ye ministers of the altar. Come, lay all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God. For the meal-offering and the drink-offering are withheld from the house of your G 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.

Yet even now, says LORD, turn ye to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents of the evil. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal-offering and a drink-offering to LORD your God?read more.
Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.

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 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,read more.
but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily to God. Yea, let them turn each one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we not perish?

And Nathan departed to his house. And LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it was very sick. 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.

Then there came some who told Jehoshaphat, saying, There comes a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea from Syria. And, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (the same is En-gedi). And Jehoshaphat was afraid, and set himself to seek for LORD. And he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together, to seek [help] from LORD, even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek LORD.

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.

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. I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as he who bewails his mother.

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 the sons of Israel asked of LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the sons of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And LORD said, Go up, for tomorrow I will del

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.

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years of which the word of LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years. And I set my face to LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar, and the thing was true, even a great warfare. And he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision. In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three whole weeks.

Now there were some men from the congregation that was in Antioch, prophets and teachers, including Barnabas, and Simeon called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, and Manaen reared with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 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. Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

And when it became day, some of the Jews, having made a conspiracy, put themselves under a curse, saying neither to eat nor to drink until they would kill Paul. And there were more than forty who made this conspiracy,