to establish these days of Purim in their proper times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established, and just as they had established both for themselves and their descendants, matters pertaining to fasting and lamentation.

This is what she wrote: ¹  “Observe a time of fasting and seat Naboth in front of the people.

So you go there the next time all the people of Judah come in from their towns to fast ¹  in the Lord’s temple. Read out loud where all of them can hear you what I told you the Lord said, which you wrote in the scroll. ² 

It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves. ¹  It is a perpetual statute. ² 

At the time of the evening offering I got up from my self-abasement, ¹  with my tunic and robe torn, and then dropped to my knees and spread my hands to the Lord my God.

They observed a time of fasting and put Naboth in front of the people.

Is this really the kind of fasting I want? ¹  Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, ²  bowing their heads like a reed and stretching out ³  on sackcloth and ashes? Is this really what you call a fast, a day that is pleasing to the Lord?

Blow the trumpet ¹  in Zion. Announce a holy fast; proclaim a sacred assembly!

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ ¹ 

It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves on the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening until evening you must observe your Sabbath.” ¹ 

No, this is the kind of fast I want. ¹  I want you ²  to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, ³  and to break every burdensome yoke.

“Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ¹  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?

Then ¹  they said to him, “John’s ²  disciples frequently fast ³  and pray, ⁴  and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, ⁵  but yours continue to eat and drink.” ⁶ 

Cornelius ¹  replied, ²  “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock in the afternoon, ³  I was praying in my house, and suddenly ⁴  a man in shining clothing stood before me

Indeed, ¹  any person who does not behave with humility on this particular day will be cut off from his people. ² 

But those days are coming, and when the bridegroom is taken from them, ¹  at that time ²  they will fast.”

For John the Baptist has come ¹  eating no bread and drinking no wine, ²  and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ ³ 

Do not deprive each other, except by mutual agreement for a specified time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. ¹  Then resume your relationship, ²  so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Then John’s ¹  disciples came to Jesus ²  and asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees ³  fast often, ⁴  but your disciples don’t fast?”

If I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way, and some of them have come from a great distance.”