It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practise self-denial. You are to observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening.’
Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
‘Why have we fasted, but you have not seen? We have denied ourselves, but you haven’t noticed! ’ ‘Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and oppress all your workers.
But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to the Lord: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.
For six days work is to be done, but on the seventh day you are to have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Anyone who does work on it must be executed.
Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.
I proclaimed a fast by the River Ahava, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us, our dependents, and all our possessions.
‘Don’t be afraid, Daniel,’ he said to me, ‘for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.