“When ¹  you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive ²  so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, ³  they have their reward.

However, hold on to what you have until I come.

I am so starved my knees shake; ¹  I have turned into skin and bones. ² 

After he fasted forty days and forty nights he was famished. ¹ 

When ¹  you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,

Then David prayed to ¹  God for the child and fasted. ²  He would even ³  go and spend the night lying on the ground.

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?

They lament, ¹  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast? Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’ Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ²  you oppress your workers. ³ 

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 

“Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I ¹  will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. ²  If I perish, I perish!”

They lamented and wept and fasted until evening because Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord’s people, and the house of Israel had fallen by the sword.

He replied, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ¹  ‘Perhaps ²  the Lord will show pity and the child will live.

But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Am I able to bring him back? I will go to him, but he cannot return to me!’”

When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He slept in sackcloth and walked around dejected.

When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, ¹  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.

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.

Announce a holy fast; ¹  proclaim a sacred assembly. Gather the elders and ²  all the inhabitants of the land to the temple of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

“Yet even now,” the Lord says, “return to me with all your heart – with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, ¹  not just your garments!”

She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. ¹  She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. ²