Reference: Fast
Easton
The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Le 23:26-32. It is called "the fast" (Ac 27:9).
The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old Testament is in Zec 7:1-7; 8:19, from which it appears that during their captivity the Jews observed four annual fasts.
(1.) The fast of the fourth month, kept on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, the anniversary of the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; to commemorate also the incident recorded Ex 32:19. (Comp. Jer 52:6-7.)
(2.) The fast of the fifth month, kept on the ninth of Ab (comp. Nu 14:27), to commemorate the burning of the city and temple (Jer 52:12-13).
(3.) The fast of the seventh month, kept on the third of Tisri (comp. 2Ki 25), the anniversary of the murder of Gedaliah (Jer 41:1-2).
(4.) The fast of the tenth month (comp. Jer 52:4; Eze 33:21; 2Ki 25:1), to commemorate the beginning of the siege of the holy city by Nebuchadnezzar.
There was in addition to these the fast appointed by Esther (Es 4:16).
Public national fasts on account of sin or to supplicate divine favour were sometimes held. (1.) 1Sa 7:6; (2.) 2Ch 20:3; (3.) Jer 36:6-10; (4.) Ne 9:1.
There were also local fasts. (1.) Jg 20:26; (2.) 2Sa 1:12; (3.) 1Sa 31:13; (4.) 1Ki 21:9-12; (5.) Ezr 8:21-23: (6.) Jon 3:5-9.
There are many instances of private occasional fasting (1Sa 1:1; 20:34; 2Sa 3:35; 12:16; 1Ki 21:27; Ezr 10:6; Ne 1:4; Da 10:2-3). Moses fasted forty days (Ex 24:18; 34:28), and so also did Elijah (1Ki 19:8). Our Lord fasted forty days in the wilderness (Mt 4:2).
In the lapse of time the practice of fasting was lamentably abused (Isa 58:4; Jer 14:12; Zec 7:5). Our Lord rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocritical pretences in fasting (Mt 6:16). He himself appointed no fast. The early Christians, however, observed the ordinary fasts according to the law of their fathers (Ac 13:3; 14:23; 2Co 6:5).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.
As he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became enraged and threw the tablets out of his hands, smashing them at the base of the mountain.
Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. He wrote down on the tablets the words of the covenant-the Ten Commandments.
The Lord again spoke to Moses: "The tenth [day] of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly and practice self-denial; you are to present a fire offering to the Lord. read more. On this particular day you are not to do any work, for it is a Day of Atonement to make atonement for yourselves before the Lord your God. If any person does not practice self-denial on this particular day, he must be cut off from his people. I will destroy among his people anyone who does any work on this same day. You are not to do any work. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live. It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practice self-denial. You are to observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth [day] of the month until the [following] evening."
"How long [must I endure] this evil community that keeps complaining about Me? I have heard the Israelites' complaints that they make against Me.
The whole Israelite army went to Bethel where they wept and sat before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord.
There was a man from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. His name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
When they gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out in the Lord's presence. They fasted that day, and there they confessed, "We have sinned against the Lord." And Samuel [began to lead] the Israelites at Mizpah as [their] judge.
He got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father's shameful behavior toward David.
Afterwards, they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.
They mourned, wept, and fasted until the evening for those who died by the sword-for Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord's people, and the house of Israel.
So he got up, ate, and drank. Then on the strength from that food, he walked 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
In the letters, she wrote: Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people. Then seat two wicked men opposite him and have them testify against him, saying, "You have cursed God and king!" Then take him out and stone him to death. read more. The men of his city, the elders and nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had commanded them, as was written in the letters she had sent them. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people.
Jehoshaphat was afraid, so he resolved to seek the Lord. So he proclaimed a fast for all Judah,
I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us, our children, and all our possessions. [I did this] because I was ashamed to ask the king for infantry and cavalry to protect us from enemies during the journey, since we had told him, "The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek Him, but His great anger is against all who abandon Him." read more. So we fasted and pleaded with our God about this, and He granted our request.
Ezra then went from the house of God, walked to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, where he spent the night. He did not eat food or drink water, because he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting, [wearing] sackcloth, [and had put] dust on their heads.
"Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don't eat or drink for three days, night and day. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish."
You fast [with] contention and strife to strike viciously with [your] fist. You cannot fast as [you do] today, [hoping] to make your voice heard on high.
If they fast, I will not hear their cry of despair. If they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. Rather, I will finish them off by sword, famine, and plague."
so you must go and read from the scroll-which you wrote at my dictation-the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people at the temple of the Lord on a day of fasting. You must also read them in the hearing of all the Judeans who are coming from their cities. Perhaps their petition will come before the Lord, and each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people are great." read more. So Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him. At the Lord's temple he read the Lord's words from the scroll. In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people of Jerusalem and all those coming in from Judah's cities into Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord. Then at the Lord's temple, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper courtyard at the opening of the New Gate of the Lord's temple, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read Jeremiah's words from the scroll.
In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family and one of the king's chief officers, came with 10 men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. They ate a meal together there in Mizpah, but then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the 10 men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with the sword; he killed the one the king of Babylon had appointed in the land.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall all around it.
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the people of the land had no food. Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah.
On the tenth day of the fifth month-which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon-Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon. He burned the Lord's temple, the king's palace, all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the nobles.
In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and reported, "The city has been taken!"
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks. I didn't eat any rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I didn't put any oil [on my body] until the three weeks were over.
The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth-from the greatest of them to the least. When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. read more. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.
In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. Now [the people of] Bethel had sent Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to plead for the Lord's favor read more. by asking the priests who were at the house of the Lord of Hosts as well as the prophets, "Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?" Then the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me: "Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh [months] for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me?
"Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh [months] for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me? When you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink [simply] for yourselves? read more. Aren't [these] the words that the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure, along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were inhabited?"
"The Lord of Hosts says this: The fast of the fourth [month], the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will become times of joy, gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah. Therefore, love truth and peace."
After He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry.
"Whenever you fast, don't be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They've got their reward!
Then, after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.
When they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
By now much time had passed, and the voyage was already dangerous. Since the Fast was already over, Paul gave his advice