27 Bible Verses about Fasting, Reasons For

And when all they of Jabesh in Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, all the men of war arose and fetched away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh and buried the bones of them under an oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

When the inhabiters of Jabesh in Gilead heard thereof what the Philistines had done to Saul, they arose as many as were men of war and went all night and took the carcass of Saul and the carcasses of his sons from the walls of Bet-Shean and brought them to Jabesh and burnt them there, and took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

Then David took his clothes and rent them, and so did all the men that were with him. And they mourned, wept and fasted until evening - for Saul, and Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel, because they were overthrown with the sword.

And David said to Joab and to all the people that were with him, "Rent your clothes and put on sackcloth and mourn before Abner." And king David himself followed the bier. And when they had buried Abner in Hebron, the king lifted up his voice and wept over the sepulchre of Abner, and so did all the people. And the king lamented over Abner and said, "Abner died not as a wretch dieth.read more.
Thy hands were not manacled nor thy feet brought into fetters: but as men fall before wicked children, so fellest thou." And all the people wept yet more over him. And when all the people came to eat meat with David, while it was yet day, David sware, saying, "So do God to me and so thereto, if I taste bread or ought else till the sun be down."

And so did she year by year, as oft as she went up to the house of the LORD. And so chafed her: wherefore Hannah wept and ate not.

And so Jonathan arose from the table in a great anger and did eat no meat the second day of the month, for he was sorry for David, because his father had done him shame.

Then went Ahab unto his house wayward and evil apaid, because of the words which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken unto him, saying, "I will not give to thee the inheritance of my fathers." And he laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face, and would eat no meat. And then Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, "Why art thou so froward, that thou eatest no meat?" And he said unto her, "I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, 'Give me thy vineyard for silver, or else if thou wilt, I will give thee another vineyard for it.' And he said, 'I will not give thee my vineyard.'"

My knees are weak through fasting; my flesh is dried up for want of fatness.

So the king went in to his palace, and kept him sober all night, so that there was no table spread before him, neither could he take any sleep.

And in the meantime, betwixt that and day, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, "This is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting receiving nothing at all,

Then said Samuel, "Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, that I may pray for you unto the LORD." And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted the same day, and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel judged the causes of the children of Israel in Mizpeh.

In the four and twentieth day of this month came the children of Israel together with fasting, and sackcloth, and earth upon them, and separated the seed of Israel from all the strange children and stood and acknowledged their sins, and the wickedness of their fathers, and they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God four times on the day; and they acknowledged, and worshipped the LORD their God four times on the day.

and I turned me unto God the LORD, for to pray and make mine intercession, with fasting, sack cloth and ashes. I prayed before the LORD my God, and knowledged, saying, "O LORD, thou great and fearful God, thou that keepest covenant and mercy with them which love thee, and do thy commandments: We have sinned, we have offended, we have been disobedient and gone back: yea, we have departed from all thy precepts and judgments.read more.
We would never follow thy servants the Prophets, that spake in thy name to our kings and princes, to our forefathers, and to all the people of the land.

As I was yet speaking at my prayers, knowledging mine own sins, and the sins of my people, making so mine intercession before the LORD my God, for the holy hill's sake of my God:

Gird you, and make your moan, O ye priests: mourn ye ministers of the alter: go your way in, and sleep in sackcloth, O ye officers of my God: for the meat and drink offering shall be taken away from the house of your God. Proclaim a fasting, call the congregation, gather the elders and all the inhabiters of the land together in to the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.

And now therefore saith the LORD: Turn to me with all your hearts, in fasting and lamentation. And tear your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God. For he is full of mercy and compassion, long ere he be angry, and great in mercy and repentance when he is at the point to punish. Who can tell whether the Lord will turn and have compassion and shall leave after him a blessing? Sacrifice, and drink offering unto the LORD your God.read more.
Blow a trumpet in Zion, proclaim fasting and call a congregation.

And the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed fasting, and arrayed themselves in sackcloth, as well the great as the small of them. And the tidings came unto the king of Nineveh, which arose out of his seat, and did his apparel off and put on sackcloth, and sat him down in ashes. And it was cried and commanded in Nineveh by the authority of the king and of his lords, saying, "See that neither man or beast, ox or sheep taste ought at all, and that they neither feed or drink water."read more.
And they put on sackcloth both man and beast, and cried unto God mightily, and turned every man from his wicked way, and from doing wrong in which they were accustomed, saying, "Who can tell whether God will turn and repent, and cease from his fierce wrath, that we perish not?"

And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child, that Uriah's wife bare David, and it sickened. And David besought God for the boy and fasted and went and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose and went to him to take him up from the earth. But he would not, neither yet eat meat with them.

And there came that told Jehoshaphat, saying, "There cometh a great multitude against thee from the other side the sea out of Syria. And see, they be in Hazazontamar," which is Engedi. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed fasting throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask counsel of the LORD. And thereto there came out of all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.

And even there at the water beside Ahava, I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and our children and all our substance.

Nevertheless, when they were sick, I put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother; I went heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.

Then the children of Israel and all the people went up and came unto Bethel, and wept and sat there before the LORD, and fasted the same day unto evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And they asked the LORD - for there was the ark of the covenant of God, in those days; and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron waiting upon it at that time - and they said, "Shall we go out any more to battle against the children of Benjamin our brethren, or shall we cease?" And the LORD said, "Go. For tomorrow I will deliver them into your hands."

after that I was gone up into the mount, to fetch the tables of stone, the tables of covenant which the LORD made with you. And I abode in the hill forty days and forty nights and neither ate bread nor drank water.

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, which was of the seed of the Medes, and was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans: Yea, even in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, desired to know the yearly number out of the books, whereof the LORD spake unto Jeremiah the Prophet: that Jerusalem should lie waste seventy years: and I turned me unto God the LORD, for to pray and make mine intercession, with fasting, sack cloth and ashes.

In the third year of king Cyrus of Persia, there was showed unto Daniel, otherwise called Balteshazzar, a matter: yea, a true matter, but it is yet a long time unto it. He understood the matter well, and perceived what the vision was. At the same time, I, Daniel, mourned for the space of three weeks,

There were at Antioch, in the congregation, certain prophets and teachers: as Barnabas and Symeon called Niger; And Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, Herod the tetrarch's nurse-fellow, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted; The holy ghost said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them." Then fasted they and prayed, and put their hands on them, and let them go.

When day was come, certain of the Jews gathered themselves together, and made a vow saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. They were about forty which had made this conspiration.