137 Bible verses about Fasting

¶ Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.But thou, when thou dost fast, anoint thine head, and wash thy facethat thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who sees in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Is not rather the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the ties of oppression, to release into freedom those who are broken, and that ye break every yoke?Is it not to share thy bread with the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou not hide thyself from thy brother?

¶ Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping, and with mourning:and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in mercy, and he does repent of chastisement.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.

And I turned my face unto the Lord God, seeking him in prayer and supplication, in fasting and sackcloth, and ashes:

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work unto which I have called them.And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.And afterward they asked for a king, and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony, saying, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who shall fulfil all my will.Of this man’s seed has God according to his promise raised up Jesus as Saviour unto Israel:John, having first proclaimed before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there comes one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.Men and brethren, sons of the lineage of Abraham, and whosoever among you fears God, unto you is this word of saving health sent.For those that dwell at Jerusalem and their princes, because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the prophets who are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.And without finding cause of death in him, yet they asked Pilate that he should be slain.And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre.And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they released them.

¶ Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of 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.For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to defend us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all those that seek him for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those that forsake him.So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us.

Then Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat had rest, for his God gave him rest round about.¶ Thus Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah; he was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.And he walked in the way of Asa, his father, and did not depart from it, doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord.With all this the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Jehu, the son of Hanani, who is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.After these things, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, joined himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who was given over to wickedness;he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Eziongeber.Then Eliezer, the son of Dodavah of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord shall destroy thy works. And the ships were broken, and they were not able to go to Tarshish.And Judah gathered themselves together, to consult the Lord; and out of all the cities of Judah they came to consult the Lord.

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of the heavens

¶ And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wildernessfor it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee,and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.And having finished all temptation, the devil departed from him for a season.¶ And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and his fame went out through all the region round about.And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up to read.And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those that are broken,to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.for forty days and was tempted of the devil. And in those days he ate nothing; and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

¶ And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

And having ordained elders for them in every congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} and having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer rose up in my bosom.I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one that mourns for his mother.

And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and slept in sackcloth and went softly.Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, the Tishbite, saying,Seest thou how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son’s days I will bring the evil upon his house.

¶ Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples do not fast?And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast.

In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three weeks of days.Then said he, Knowest thou why I have come unto thee? Because now I must return to fight with the prince of the Persians; and when I am gone forth, next the prince of Grecia shall come.But I will interpret unto thee that which is written in the scripture of truth: and there is no one that holds with me in these things, but Michael your prince.I ate no pleasant bread, neither did flesh nor wine come into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all until the three weeks of days were fulfilled.

¶ Why have we fasted, they say, and thou dost not see? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou dost take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure and exact your own estates.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.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?

¶ 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 didst show signs and wonders upon Pharaoh and on all his slaves and on all the people of his land; for thou didst know that they had dealt proudly against them. So didst thou make thee a name, as it is this day.And thou didst divide the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou didst throw into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.Moreover, thou didst lead them by day with a pillar of cloud and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light in the way by which they should go.Thou didst come down upon Mount Sinai and didst speak with them from heaven and didst give them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments,and didst make known unto them the sabbath of thy holiness and didst prescribe for them commandments, statutes, and law by the hand of Moses, thy slave.And thou didst give them bread from heaven in their hunger and didst bring forth water for them out of the rock in their thirst and didst promise them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and did not hearken unto thy commandmentsand refused to hear; neither did they remember thy wonders that thou hadst done among them, but hardened their necks and in their rebellion thought to appoint a leader to return to their bondage; but thou art a God of pardons, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great mercy, for thou didst not leave them.Even when they had made themselves a molten calf and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had committed great abominations;yet thou in thy manifold mercies didst not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither did the pillar of fire by night, to illuminate the way in which they should go.And the seed of Israel had separated themselves from all strangers and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

Speak unto 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 unto me, even to me?

And they gathered together in Mizpeh 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 sons of Israel in Mizpeh.

Do not defraud one another, except it be with mutual consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again, that Satan not tempt you for your incontinency.

Howbeit this lineage of demons does not go out but by prayer and fasting.

When I wept with fasting of my soul, thou hast been a reproach unto me.

David, therefore, besought God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth.

Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so I will go in unto the king, even though this is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.

¶ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the earth into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord.

¶ Then all the sons of Israel and all the people went up and came unto 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.

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

And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God.

And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothingand said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.

¶ Then the king went to his palace and lay down without eating; neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep fled from him.

¶ 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.

that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who sees in secret, shall reward thee openly.

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 sword and by famine and by pestilence.

Thus hath the Lord of the hosts said, 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.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer rose up in my bosom.

Blow the shofar in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:gather the people, sanctify the meeting, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.

but I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection, lest preaching to others, I myself should become reprobate.

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of the heavens¶ and said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of the heavens, strong, great and terrible, who keeps covenant and mercy for those that love thee and observe thy commandments;let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open, that thou may hear the prayer of thy slave, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the sons of Israel, thy slaves, and I confess the sins of the sons of Israel, with which we have sinned against thee; both I and my father’s house have sinned.

And this would happen year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she would provoke her; therefore, she would weep and not eat.Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why dost thou weep? And why dost thou not eat? And why is thy heart grieved? Am I not better to thee than ten sons?

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work unto which I have called them.

and she was a widow eighty-four years, who departed not from the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.

So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us.

And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people

¶ And whiles I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God;I was even yet speaking in prayer, and that man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening sacrifice.And he caused me to understand and spoke with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to cause thee to understand the interpretation.At the beginning of thy supplications, the word went forth, and I have come to teach it unto thee; for thou art a man greatly beloved: therefore understand the word, and understand the vision.

And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Israel because they had fallen by the sword.

¶ Then all the sons of Israel and all the people went up and came unto 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.And the sons of Israel enquired of the 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 the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into thy hand.

¶ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the earth into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord.Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

to confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai, the Jew, and Esther, the queen, had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the words of the fastings and their cry.

¶ Cry aloud, do not hold back; lift up thy voice like a shofar and preach to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sin.and if thou pour out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.And they shall build up out of thee the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the fallen foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.¶ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy will on my holy day; and call the sabbath the delightful, holy, glorious day of the Lord; and shalt honour him by not doing thine own ways, nor seeking thine own will, nor speaking thine own words:Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and cause thee to eat of the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.That they seek me daily and want to know my ways, as people that do righteousness and have not forsaken the rights of their God: they ask me of the rights of righteousness and desire to approach God.¶ Why have we fasted, they say, and thou dost not see? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou dost take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure and exact your own estates.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.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?Is not rather the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the ties of oppression, to release into freedom those who are broken, and that ye break every yoke?Is it not to share thy bread with the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou not hide thyself from thy brother?¶ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall gather thee.Then shalt thou call, and thou shalt hear the Lord; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

¶ Then Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.Then Jesus said unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.Then the devil left him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.¶ Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he returned to Galilee;and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali,that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,The land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;the people who sat in darkness saw great light, and to those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up.From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand.¶ And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.And they straightway left their nets and followed him.And going on from there, he saw another two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him.¶ And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every bodily weakness among the people.And his fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments and those who were possessed with devils and those who were lunatic and those that were paralyzed; and he healed them.And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judaea and from beyond Jordan.And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones be made into bread.But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

if my people, upon whom my name is invoked, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from the heavens and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take food, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have waited and continued fasting, having taken nothing.Therefore I pray you to take some food, for this is for your salvation and health, for there shall not one hair fall from the head of any of you.

¶ Then the king went to his palace and lay down without eating; neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep fled from him.Therefore, the king arose very early in the morning at dawn and went in haste unto the den of lions.and over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the governors might give accounts unto them, and the king should not be bothered.And when he came to the den, he cried loudly with a sad voice unto Daniel; and the king, in speaking to Daniel said, Daniel, servant of the living God, has thy God, whom thou servest continually, been able to deliver thee from the lions?

And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast.

¶ 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 of Jerusalem and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.

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

For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he threw his robe from him and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing; let them not feed, nor drink water:but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God; and let each one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger, that we not perish?

¶ Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Johanan, the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of the transgression of those that had been carried away.

And they took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days.1

¶ 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 didst show signs and wonders upon Pharaoh and on all his slaves and on all the people of his land; for thou didst know that they had dealt proudly against them. So didst thou make thee a name, as it is this day.And thou didst divide the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou didst throw into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.Moreover, thou didst lead them by day with a pillar of cloud and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light in the way by which they should go.Thou didst come down upon Mount Sinai and didst speak with them from heaven and didst give them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments,and didst make known unto them the sabbath of thy holiness and didst prescribe for them commandments, statutes, and law by the hand of Moses, thy slave.And thou didst give them bread from heaven in their hunger and didst bring forth water for them out of the rock in their thirst and didst promise them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and did not hearken unto thy commandmentsand refused to hear; neither did they remember thy wonders that thou hadst done among them, but hardened their necks and in their rebellion thought to appoint a leader to return to their bondage; but thou art a God of pardons, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great mercy, for thou didst not leave them.Even when they had made themselves a molten calf and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had committed great abominations;yet thou in thy manifold mercies didst not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither did the pillar of fire by night, to illuminate the way in which they should go.And the seed of Israel had separated themselves from all strangers and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.Thou didst give thy good spirit to teach them and didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth and didst give them water for their thirst.Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wax old, and their feet did not swell.Thou didst give them kingdoms and peoples and didst divide them into corners; so they possessed the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of Og, king of Bashan.Thou didst multiply their sons as the stars of heaven and didst introduce them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to inherit it.So the sons came in and possessed the land, and thou didst humble the inhabitants of the land before them, the Canaanites, and didst give them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.And they took strong cities and fertile land and inherited houses full of all goods, hewn cisterns, vineyards and oliveyards and many trees of good fruit; so they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.Nevertheless, they were contentious and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their backs and slew thy prophets who testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great abominations.Therefore, thou didst deliver them into the hand of their enemies, who afflicted them; and in the time of their tribulation, they cried unto thee, thou didst hear them from the heavens; and according to thy manifold mercies thou didst give them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee; therefore, thou didst leave them in the hand of their enemies so that they had the dominion over them; yet when they returned and cried unto thee, thou didst hear them from the heavens; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy merciesand didst protest unto them, that they return unto thy law; yet they dealt proudly and did not hearken unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments (which if a man shall do, in them he shall live) and withdrew the shoulder and hardened their neck and would not hear.And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God.

in labour and travail, in many watches, in hunger and thirst, in many fasts, in cold and nakedness.

where he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

When I climbed up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, without eating bread or drinking water;

¶ Then all the sons of Israel and all the people went up and came unto 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.And the sons of Israel enquired of the Lord (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

¶ But the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eats any food until evening that I may be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted any food.

¶ Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.

I fast two meals every sabbath; I give tithes of all that I possess.

I ate no pleasant bread, neither did flesh nor wine come into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all until the three weeks of days were fulfilled.

¶ And thou, O GOD the Lord, do unto me for thy name’s sake; because thy mercy is good, deliver me.For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.I am gone like the shadow when it declines; I am tossed up and down by the wind as the locust.My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails for lack of fatness.

¶ Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of 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.

but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God; and let each one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mount, and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

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

¶ Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples do not fast?And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast.No one mends an old garment with a piece of new cloth, for that patch takes from the garment, and the rent is made worse.Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wineskins break, and the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish; but they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved together.

And in each province, wherever the king’s commandment and his law came, there was great mourning among the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Then Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

Prove, now, with thy slaves ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

And they gathered together in Mizpeh 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 sons of Israel in Mizpeh.¶ And when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel were gathered together in Mizpeh, the cardinals of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.And the sons of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.

¶ Then the Lord will be jealous for his earth and forgive his people.

¶ And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my affliction; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God

And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing

But the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place,for so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread nor drink water nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.

And he said unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst give thy heart to understand and to afflict thy soul before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come because of thy words.But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days: and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

¶ As the hart pants after the water brooks, so does my soul pant after thee, O God.It is as death in my bones when my enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Wait thou for God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the saving health of my countenance and my God.My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?

And I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we encamped three days, and having searched among the people and the priests, I did not find there any of the sons of Levi.Then I commissioned Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, principals, also Joiarib and Elnathan, men of understanding;and I sent them unto Iddo, the captain at the place of Casiphia, and I put words in their mouth that they should speak unto Iddo and to his brethren, the Nethinims, at the place of Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God.And by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen;and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty;Of the sons of Phinehas; Gershon: of the sons of Ithamar; Daniel: of the sons of David; Hattush.also of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the ministry of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them were expressed by name.¶ Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of 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.For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to defend us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all those that seek him for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those that forsake him.So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us.

¶ Then Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.Then Jesus said unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.Then the devil left him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Then they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink?And he said unto them, Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

And the sons of Israel enquired of the 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 the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into thy hand.

¶ 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;and have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God to walk by his laws, which he set before us by the hand of his slaves the prophets.And all Israel transposed thy law, departing by not hearing thy voice; by which the curse has fallen upon us and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the slave of God, because we have sinned against him.And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke over us and over our judges that governed us, by bringing upon us such a great evil: that such has never been done under the whole heaven as has been done upon Jerusalem.As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us, and we never sought the face of the Lord our God, that we might be converted from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.And the Lord hastened upon the chastisement and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is just in all his works which he has done, for we did not listen to his voice.And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and hast won for thyself a very clear name as appears unto this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and all thy people is given in reproach to all that are about us.Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy slave and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is made desolate, by the Lord.O my God, incline thine ear and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee confiding in our righteousnesses, but in thy many mercies.O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.in the first year of his reign, I Daniel saw diligently in the books the number of the years, of which the Lord spoke unto Jeremiah the prophet, which would conclude the desolation of Jerusalem in seventy years.¶ And whiles I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God;I was even yet speaking in prayer, and that man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening sacrifice.And he caused me to understand and spoke with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to cause thee to understand the interpretation.At the beginning of thy supplications, the word went forth, and I have come to teach it unto thee; for thou art a man greatly beloved: therefore understand the word, and understand the vision.Seventy weeks are determined {Heb. Cut} upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the prevarication and to conclude the sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and seal the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the holy of holies.Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to cause the people to return and to build Jerusalem unto the Anointed {Heb. Messiah} Prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks, while the street shall be built again and the wall, even in troublous times.And after the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One {Heb. Messiah} shall be killed and shall have nothing: (and the ruling people that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; whose end shall be as a flood, until at the end of the war it shall be cut off with desolation).In one week (they are now seventy) he shall confirm the covenant by many: and at the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the many abominations, desolation shall come, even until complete destruction shall be poured out upon the abominable people.And I turned my face unto the Lord God, seeking him in prayer and supplication, in fasting and sackcloth, and ashes:

¶ And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had given birth unto 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 earth.And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died. And the slaves of David feared to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice; how much more will it trouble him if we tell him that the child is dead?But when David saw that his slaves whispered, David understood that the child was dead; therefore, David said unto his slaves, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.The rich man had exceeding many sheep and cows,Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he came to his own house; and when he asked, they set bread before him, and he ate.Then his slaves said unto him, What is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.And he replied, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will have mercy on me, that the child may live?But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the present and the drink offering is taken away from the house of your God.¶ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the earth into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord.

When I wept with fasting of my soul, thou hast been a reproach unto me.I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb to them.

and if thou pour out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who sees in secret shall reward thee openly.

And I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we encamped three days, and having searched among the people and the priests, I did not find there any of the sons of Levi.

¶ And David said to Abiathar, the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring the ephod here to me. And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue; for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all.

¶ O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh longs for thee in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water;They shall be slain by the sword; they shall be a portion for foxes.But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that swears by him shall be praised; for the mouth of those that speak lies shall be stopped.in this manner I beheld thee in holiness when I beheld thy power and thy glory.¶ Because thy mercy is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.Thus will I bless thee in my life; in thy name shall I lift up my hands.My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips

And he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was this not what I said when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hastened to flee unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy, and dost repent when thou art come to take punishment.

My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing to the living God.

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!For he satisfies the soul that is destitute and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was of a great age and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity,and she was a widow eighty-four years, who departed not from the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.

Then he said unto them, Go, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and send portions unto those who have nothing prepared; for this day is holy unto our Lord, and not sad; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

¶ Then the Lord will be jealous for his earth and forgive his people.Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you bread and new wine and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no longer make you a reproach among the Gentiles:

¶ And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,to establish this among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days of banquet and joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.

¶ Now there were in the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} that was at Antioch prophets and teachers: Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.and said, O full of all deception and all licentiousness, thou son of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is against thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.Then the proconsul, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.Now when Paul and his company sailed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; then John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.¶ But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and sat down.And after the reading of the law and the prophets the princes of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, speak.Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel and ye that fear God hearken.The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm he brought them out of it.And for the time of about forty years, he suffered their manners in the wilderness.And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot.As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work unto which I have called them.And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.And afterward they asked for a king, and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony, saying, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who shall fulfil all my will.Of this man’s seed has God according to his promise raised up Jesus as Saviour unto Israel:John, having first proclaimed before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there comes one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.Men and brethren, sons of the lineage of Abraham, and whosoever among you fears God, unto you is this word of saving health sent.For those that dwell at Jerusalem and their princes, because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the prophets who are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.And without finding cause of death in him, yet they asked Pilate that he should be slain.And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre.And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they released them.

¶ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy will on my holy day; and call the sabbath the delightful, holy, glorious day of the Lord; and shalt honour him by not doing thine own ways, nor seeking thine own will, nor speaking thine own words:Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and cause thee to eat of the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

¶ It came to pass after this also that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon and with them others besides the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle.And now, behold, the sons of Ammon and of Moab and those of Mount Seir, whose land thou would not let Israel enter when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them;behold they reward us by coming to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that comes against us; we do not know what to do; but our eyes are fixed upon thee.And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.¶ Then upon Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation;and he said, Hearken, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Do not be afraid nor dismayed before this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.Tomorrow ye shall go down against them; behold, they shall come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them next to the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel.Ye shall not need to fight in this battle; set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem; fear not, neither be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord shall be with you.Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and likewise all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.And the Levites, of the sons of the Kohath and of the sons of the Korah, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, There comes a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea, and from Syria; and, behold, they are in Hazazontamar, which is Engedi.¶ And when they arose early in the morning and while they were going forth into the wilderness of Tekoa, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe the Lord your God, and ye shall be secure; believe his prophets, and ye shall be prospered.And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed some to sing unto the Lord and to praise in the beauty of holiness, while the army went out and to say, Praise the Lord, for his mercy endures for ever.And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set the sons of Moab and those of Mount Seir to ambush the sons of Ammon, who were coming against Judah; and they smote one another.And the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, each one helped his companion to kill himself.And when Judah came to the watch tower of the wilderness, they looked for the multitude, and, behold, they were fallen to the earth dead, for none had escaped.And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to spoil them, they found among them an abundance of riches and of dead bodies and clothing and precious vessels which they took for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering in the spoil, it was so much.And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; {Heb. of Blessing} for there they blessed the Lord; therefore, they called the name of that place, The valley of Berachah, unto this day.Then they returned, those of Judah and those of Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat at their head, to go again to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies.And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord.And the fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the land when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.Then Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat had rest, for his God gave him rest round about.

Then Daniel said to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,Prove, now, with thy slaves ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and slept in sackcloth and went softly.

¶ Then the sons of Israel arose and went up to the house of God and asked counsel of God and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the sons of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first.And the sons of Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, were present in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in order to fight against them at Gibeah.And the sons of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah and destroyed down to the ground twenty-two thousand men of the Israelites that day.And the people encouraged themselves, and the men of Israel set their battle again in order in the place where they put themselves in order the first day.(And the sons of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening and asked counsel of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the sons of Benjamin, my brother? And the Lord said, Go up against him.)And the sons of Israel came near against the sons of Benjamin the second day.And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day and again destroyed down to the ground eighteen thousand of the sons of Israel; all these drew the sword.¶ Then all the sons of Israel and all the people went up and came unto 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.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.And they straightway left their nets and followed him.And going on from there, he saw another two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him.¶ And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every bodily weakness among the people.And his fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments and those who were possessed with devils and those who were lunatic and those that were paralyzed; and he healed them.And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judaea and from beyond Jordan.And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones be made into bread.But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

¶ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the earth into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord.Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.Is not the food cut off before our eyes, the joy and the gladness from the house of our God?

And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God.

¶ And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had given birth unto 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 earth.

¶ Then the king went to his palace and lay down without eating; neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep fled from him.Therefore, the king arose very early in the morning at dawn and went in haste unto the den of lions.and over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the governors might give accounts unto them, and the king should not be bothered.And when he came to the den, he cried loudly with a sad voice unto Daniel; and the king, in speaking to Daniel said, Daniel, servant of the living God, has thy God, whom thou servest continually, been able to deliver thee from the lions?Then Daniel said unto the king, O king, live for ever.My God has sent his angel, who shut the lions’ mouths, that they do me no evil because before him righteousness was found in me; and even before thee, O king, I have done no corruption.Then the king was exceeding glad because of him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury was found upon him because he believed in his God.And the king commanded, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and even before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions had the mastery of them, and broke all their bones in pieces.

for forty days and was tempted of the devil. And in those days he ate nothing; and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

But thou, when thou dost fast, anoint thine head, and wash thy face

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales; and he received sight immediately and arose and was baptized.And when he had received food, he was comforted. Then Saul was certain days with the disciples who were at Damascus.

¶ Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Johanan, the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of the transgression of those that had been carried away.And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the sons of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalemand that whoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and of the elders, all his substance should be forfeited and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away.

¶ Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping, and with mourning:

¶ In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia the Word was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the Word was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the Word, and had intelligence in the vision.¶ And, behold, a hand touched me and caused me to move upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.And he said unto me, Daniel, O man greatly beloved, pay attention to the words that I shall speak unto thee, and stand up upon thy feet: for I am sent now unto thee. And as he was speaking this with me, I was trembling.And he said unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst give thy heart to understand and to afflict thy soul before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come because of thy words.But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days: and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.Now I am come to make thee know what shall befall thy people in the latter days, for there shall still be vision for several days.And as he was speaking such words unto me, I looked toward the ground and became dumb.And, behold, one like the similitude of the son of man touched my lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke and said unto him that stood before me, O my Lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.For how can the slave of my Lord talk with my Lord? for as for me, for in that instant I had no more strength in me, neither was there any breath left in me.Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he comforted me,and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be of good cheer, and be well. And as he spoke unto me, I was strengthened and said, Let my Lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three weeks of days.Then said he, Knowest thou why I have come unto thee? Because now I must return to fight with the prince of the Persians; and when I am gone forth, next the prince of Grecia shall come.But I will interpret unto thee that which is written in the scripture of truth: and there is no one that holds with me in these things, but Michael your prince.I ate no pleasant bread, neither did flesh nor wine come into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all until the three weeks of days were fulfilled.

And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible one.I therefore so run, not as unto an uncertain thing; so I fight, not as one that beats the air;but I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection, lest preaching to others, I myself should become reprobate.

O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that shall trust in him.

¶ O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh longs for thee in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water;

¶ and I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said, Now O Lord, thou great God who is worthy to be feared, who keeps the covenant and the mercy with those that love thee and keep thy commandments;we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, and we have been rebels, and we have departed from thy commandments and from thy judgments.We have not hearkened unto thy slaves the prophets, who spoke in thy name to our kings and to our princes, to our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

Then they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink?