Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly; gather together the ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God: and cry ye to the Lord:
And my people, upon whom my name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to me, and seek out my face, and do penance for their most wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.
Moreover out of all the tribes of Israel, whosoever gave their heart to seek the Lord the God of Israel came into Jerusalem to sacrifice their victims before the Lord the God of their fathers.
And I proclaimed there a fast by the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before the Lord our God, and might ask of him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our substance.