'Fasting' in the Bible

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt upon them.

In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and just as they had established for themselves and for their descendants with instructions for their times of fasting and their lamentations.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth;I humbled my soul with fasting,And my prayer kept returning to my bosom.

When I wept in my soul with fasting,It became my reproach.

My knees are weak from fasting,And my flesh has grown lean, without fatness.

Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him; and his sleep fled from him.

So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,“Return to Me with all your heart,And with fasting, weeping and mourning;

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

[But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”]

John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they *came and *said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.