27 Bible Verses about Fasting, Reasons For

And all Jabesh-Gilead will hear all that the rovers did to Saul, And they will rise, every man of strength, and they will lift up the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons, and they will bring them to Jabesh, and they will bury their bones under an oak in Jabesh, and they will fast seven days.

And the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead will hear concerning him what the rovers did to Saul, And they will rise, every man of strength, and go all night and take the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the walls of the House of Quiet, and come to Jabesh, and burn them there. And they will take their bones and bury under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they will fast seven days.

And David will take hold upon his garments and will rend them; and also all the men which are with him. And they will mourn and weep, and fast, even till the evening, for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Jehovah and for the house of Israel, because they fell by the sword.

And David will say to Joab and to all the people which were with him, Rend your garments and gird you with sack-cloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David went after the litter. And they will bury Abner in Hebron: and the king will lift up his voice and weep at the grave of Abner; and all the people will weep. And the king will lament for Abner, and he will say, As the fool died will Abner die?read more.
Thy hands not bound, and thy feet were not joined to fetters as falling before the sons of iniquity thou fellest. And all the people will add to weep over him. And all the people will come to cause David to eat bread, while yet day. And David will swear, saying, Thus will God do to me, and thus will he add, if before the going down of the sun I shall taste bread or anything.

And so she will do year by year when she went up to the house of Jehovah, so she will be grieved, and she will weep and will not eat

And Jonathan will rise from the table in the heat of wrath, and he will not eat bread in the day of the month the second, for he was grieved for David because his father reproached him.

And Ahab will come to his house rebellious and angry for the word that Naboth the Jezreelite spake to him: and he will say, I will not give to thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he will lie down upon his bed and turn away his face, and not eat bread. And Jezebel his wife will come to him, and she will speak to him, What this thy spirit rebellious, and thou not eating bread? And he will speak to her, Because I shall speak to Naboth the Jezreelite and say to him, Thou shalt give to me thy vineyard for silver; or if thou art willing, I will give to thee a vineyard in its stead. And he will say, I will not give to thee my vineyard.

My knees were weak from fasting, and my flesh failed from fatness.

Then the king departed to his temple and passed the night fasting: and he brought not his concubines before him, and his sleep fled from him.

And till it was about to be day, Paul besought all to take food, saying, Awaiting this day the fourteenth day, ye continue fasting, having taken nothing.

And Samuel will say, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you to Jehovah. And they will gather together to Mizpeh, and draw water and pour out before Jehovah; and they will fast in that day and say there, We sinned against Jehovah. And Samuel will judge the sons of Israel in Mizpeh.

And in the twenty and fourth day to this month, the sons of Israel were gathered together with fasting and with sackclothes, and earth upon them. And the seed of Israel will be separated from all the sons of the stranger, and they will stand and confess over their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. And they will rise up upon their standing and read in the book of the law of Jehovah their God, the fourth of the day; and a fourth confessing and worshiping to Jehovah their God.

And I will give my face to Jehovah God to seek prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes: And I will pray to Jehovah my God, and I will confess and say, Ah, Jehovah, the great and dreadful God, watching the covenant and the mercy to those loving him, and to those watching his commands: We sinned, and we did iniquity, and were evil, and rebelled, and departing from thy commands and from thy judgments.read more.
And we heard not to thy servants the prophets who spake in thy name to our kings and our chiefs and our fathers, and to all the people of the earth.

And I yet speaking and praying and confessing my sins, and the sins of my people Israel, and causing my supplication to fall before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God;

Be ye girded and lament, ye priests: wail, ye, serving the altar: come in, pass the night in sackcloth, ye serving God: for the gift and the libation were withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast., call an assembly, gather together the old men, all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry to Jehovah.

And also now, says Jehovah, Turn back even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping and with wailing. And rend your heart and not your garments, and turn back to Jehovah your God: for he is merciful and compassionate, slow of anger and of much kindness, and lamenting on account of the evil. Who shall know he will turn back, and lamenting and leaving a blessing after him, a gift and a libation to Jehovah your God?read more.
Clang ye the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast, call a restraining.

And the men of Nineveh will believe in God, and they will call a fast, and put on sackcloth, from great and even to small. And the word will reach to the king of Nineveh, and he will rise from his throne, and he will take away his wide cloak from off him, and he will cover with sackcloth, and he will sit upon ashes. And he will cry out and say in Nineveh from the edict of the king and of his great ones, saying, The man and beast, the herd and flock shall not taste of anything; they shall not feed and they shall not drink water.read more.
And man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry with strength to Jehovah: and they shall turn back each from his evil way, and the violence which is in their hands. Who shall know God will turn back and lament, and turning back from the burning of his anger and we shall not perish?

And Nathan will go to his house. And Jehovah will strike the child which Uriah's wife bare to David and he will be sick. And David will seek God for the boy, and fast a fast; and he came and passed the night and lay upon the earth. And the old men of his house will rise to him to lift him up from the earth; and he would not, and he ate not bread with them.

And they will come and announce to Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude coming against thee from beyond the sea from Aram in HazazonTamar; this the fountain of the kid. And Jehoshaphat will fear, and he will give his face to seek to Jehovah, and he will call a fast for all Judah. And Judah will gather together to seek from Jehovah; also from all the cities of Judah they came to seek Jehovah.

And I shall call a fast there, upon the river Ahava, to humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a straight way for us and for our little ones, and for all our substance.

And I, in their being sick, my clothing sackcloth: I humbled my soul in fasting, and my prayer shall be turned back upon my bosom. As a friend, as a brother to me: I went about as mourning a mother: being darkened, I bowed down.

And all the sons of Israel and all the people will go up, and they will come to the house of God, and they will weep, and they will sit there before Jehovah, and they will fast in that day till the evening, and they will bring up burnt-offerings and peace before Jehovah. And the sons of Israel will ask in Jehovah, (and there the ark of the covenant of God in those days, And Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I add yet to go forth to war with the sons of Benjamin my brother, or shall I desist? And Jehovah will say, Go up; for to-morrow I will give him into thy hand.

In my going up to the mount to take the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which Jehovah made with you, and I shall dwell in the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate not bread and I drank not water:

In one year to Darius son of Ahasuerus, from the seed of Media who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. In one year to the kingdom, I Daniel understood by books the number of years which the word of Jehovah was to Jeremiah the prophet, to fill up for the desolations of Jerusalem seventy years. And I will give my face to Jehovah God to seek prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes:

In the third year to Cyrus king of Persia the word was revealed to Daniel, whom his name was called Belteshazzar; and the word truth, and the warfare great: and he understood the word, and understanding to him in the sight And in these days I Daniel was mourning three weeks of days.

And certain prophets and teachers were in the church being in Antioch; as Barnabas, and Simeon called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And they serving the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Separate to me Barnabas and Saul to the work which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed, and put hands upon them, they let go.

And it being day, certain of the Jews having made a condition, anathematized themselves, saying, neither to eat or drink till they kill Paul. And there were more than forty having made this conspiracy.