Fasting is mentioned in the New Testament 27 times.
Many religious traditions throughout history have observed fasting as a spiritual discipline. It entails fasting from food and liquids for a set amount of time, along with prayer and reflection. Fasting is most often associated with religious practice, but it can also be done for health reasons.
The practice of fasting has long been part of Jewish culture. In the Torah, fasting is prescribed as a means of repentance or penance (Matthew 9:14). Jesus fasted for 40 days in preparation for his ministry (Matthew 4:1–11). The apostle Paul wrote about the importance of fasting in his letters to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 7:5).
Fasting was also an important part of early Christianity. The Didache, an early Christian document written around AD 100, lists a variety of occasions on which Christians should fast: when they are ill or recovering from illness; when they are going on a journey; during times of persecution; and at Eastertime.
Early Christians fasted not only during times of need but also as an expression of commitment to Christ and his teachings.
How Many Times Is Fasting Mentioned In The New Testament
Helpful Bible Verses about Fasting
Both the Old Testament and New Testament teach the value of fasting, which is abstaining from food or drink in order to focus on prayer and seek God’s will. Fasting is mentioned over 70 times throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, there were two types of fasting: public and private. Both types offer great spiritual benefits.
Through the many examples of people in the Bible who fasted, we can know that God grants supernatural revelation and wisdom through this practice. Moses, Daniel, and even Jesus fasted! Scripture tells us that fasting will help us grow a more intimate relationship with Christ and will open our eyes to what He wants to teach us.
If you are wondering how to fast, such as for how long, what to abstain from, and what to pray for, these scriptures on fasting will help guide you on your journey! We have also written a guide to help you choose the type of fast that is right for you: What Exactly is Fasting All About? Understanding the Power of Fasting and Prayer
You can also Download these Bible verses about fasting HERE. Print them and keep them with you as you start a spiritual renewal journey.
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1 Corinthians 7:5
5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
2 Samuel 1:12
12 They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
Acts 13:2
2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Acts 14:23
23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
Daniel 10:3
3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
Esther 4:16
16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
Exodus 34:28
28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
Joel 2:12
12 “Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Luke 2:37
37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
Luke 18:12
12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
Nehemiah 1:4
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
Psalms 69:10
10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;
Psalms 35:13-14
13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered,
14 I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.
Joel 2:12-13
12 “Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Acts 13:3-4
3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.
Daniel 9:3-5
3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.
2 Samuel 12:15-17
15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground.
17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
1 Kings 21:25-27
25 (There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife.
26 He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel.)
27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly.
Luke 4:2-4
2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
Ezra 8:21-23
21 There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.
22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.”
23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
Bible Verses To Read When Fasting
Matthew 6:16-18 ESV / 4,863 helpful votes
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Joel 2:12 ESV / 4,017 helpful votes
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
Daniel 10:3 ESV / 3,827 helpful votes
I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.
Ezra 8:23 ESV / 3,364 helpful votes
So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
Isaiah 58:6 ESV / 3,291 helpful votes
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Acts 13:2 ESV / 3,017 helpful votes
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Psalm 69:10 ESV / 2,986 helpful votes
When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.
Acts 14:23 ESV / 2,937 helpful votes
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Exodus 34:28 ESV / 2,919 helpful votes
So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Esther 4:16 ESV / 2,851 helpful votes
“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
Matthew 6:16 ESV / 2,792 helpful votes
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 2,769 helpful votes
Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Acts 13:3 ESV / 2,638 helpful votes
Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Isaiah 58:3-7 ESV / 2,546 helpful votes
‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Nehemiah 1:4 ESV / 2,526 helpful votes
As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Matthew 6:18 ESV / 2,273 helpful votes
That your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:17-18 ESV / 2,196 helpful votes
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Luke 2:37 ESV / 2,121 helpful votes
And then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
Psalm 35:13 ESV / 2,088 helpful votes
But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.
Luke 4:2 ESV / 2,052 helpful votes
For forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
Luke 18:12 ESV / 1,959 helpful votes
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
Matthew 4:4 ESV / 1,905 helpful votes
But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
2 Samuel 1:12 ESV / 1,897 helpful votes
And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
Luke 4:1-2 ESV / 1,814 helpful votes
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
Joel 2:12-13 ESV / 1,686 helpful votes
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
Ezra 8:21-23 ESV / 1,605 helpful votes
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
Matthew 6:1-16:28 ESV / 1,528 helpful votes
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. …
Psalm 35:13-14 ESV / 1,457 helpful votes
But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.
Daniel 9:3 ESV / 1,442 helpful votes
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel 9:3-5 ESV / 1,323 helpful votes
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.
Ezra 8:21 ESV / 1,308 helpful votes
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods.
Jonah 3:5-9 ESV / 1,268 helpful votes
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
1 Kings 21:25-27 ESV / 1,244 helpful votes
(There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the people of Israel.) And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.
Isaiah 58:1-14 ESV / 1,204 helpful votes
“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? …
Isaiah 58:3 ESV / 1,198 helpful votes
‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.
1 Samuel 7:6 ESV / 1,163 helpful votes
So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.
Luke 18:1 ESV / 1,130 helpful votes
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
Isaiah 58:2 ESV / 1,128 helpful votes
Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.
Acts 13:1-3 ESV / 1,092 helpful votes
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
2 Samuel 12:16 ESV / 1,075 helpful votes
David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.
Jonah 3:5 ESV / 1,054 helpful votes
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
2 Samuel 12:15-17 ESV / 991 helpful votes
Then Nathan went to his house. And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.
Matthew 4:2 ESV / 940 helpful votes
And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Matthew 9:14-15 ESV / 939 helpful votes
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Zechariah 7:5 ESV / 930 helpful votes
“Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?
Mark 9:29 ESV / 912 helpful votes
And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Joel 1:14 ESV / 899 helpful votes
Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
Zechariah 8:19 ESV / 860 helpful votes
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.
Acts 9:9 ESV / 846 helpful votes
And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Judges 20:26 ESV / 807 helpful votes
Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to Bethel and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
Revelation 1:1 ESV / 795 helpful votes
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,
Ezra 10:6 ESV / 794 helpful votes
Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib, where he spent the night, neither eating bread nor drinking water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles.
Matthew 17:21 ESV / 772 helpful votes
Matthew 9:15 ESV / 768 helpful votes
And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 763 helpful votes
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Leviticus 16:29 ESV / 763 helpful votes
“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.
1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV / 750 helpful votes
But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Luke 4:2-4 ESV / 736 helpful votes
For forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
2 Corinthians 11:27 ESV / 730 helpful votes
In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
Esther 4:3 ESV / 715 helpful votes
And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Acts 13:2-3 ESV / 714 helpful votes
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Mark 2:18 ESV / 707 helpful votes
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
Luke 5:33 ESV / 666 helpful votes
And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”
Matthew 4:1-11 ESV / 658 helpful votes
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple …
Daniel 10:2-3 ESV / 648 helpful votes
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.
Luke 5:33-35 ESV / 642 helpful votes
And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
1 Kings 19:8 ESV / 608 helpful votes
And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
Matthew 17:20-22 ESV / 607 helpful votes
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men,
Matthew 9:14 ESV / 576 helpful votes
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
1 Samuel 31:13 ESV / 574 helpful votes
And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.
Daniel 6:18 ESV / 570 helpful votes
Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.
Luke 18:1-12 ESV / 568 helpful votes
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” …
Acts 10:30 ESV / 562 helpful votes
And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing
1 Corinthians 7:1-5 ESV / 542 helpful votes
Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
2 Chronicles 20:3 ESV / 537 helpful votes
Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
Nehemiah 9:1 ESV / 526 helpful votes
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.
Isaiah 58:6-7 ESV / 505 helpful votes
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Deuteronomy 9:18 ESV / 494 helpful votes
Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
Exodus 34:28-29 ESV / 490 helpful votes
So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
Mark 2:18-20 ESV / 484 helpful votes
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
Matthew 9:14-17 ESV / 479 helpful votes
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
Isaiah 58:5 ESV / 478 helpful votes
Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
Jeremiah 14:12 ESV / 474 helpful votes
Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
Matthew 4:1-4 ESV / 471 helpful votes
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Joel 2:15 ESV / 464 helpful votes
Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;
Luke 5:34-35 ESV / 463 helpful votes
And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
Acts 13:1-52 ESV / 455 helpful votes
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. …
Psalm 109:24 ESV / 410 helpful votes
My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
Luke 4:1-4 ESV / 408 helpful votes
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
Matthew 4:1-2 ESV / 406 helpful votes
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Jonah 3:5-10 ESV / 372 helpful votes
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” …
Luke 5:35 ESV / 356 helpful votes
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
2 Samuel 3:35 ESV / 354 helpful votes
Then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was yet day. But David swore, saying, “God do so to me and more also, if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down!”
1 Kings 21:27 ESV / 350 helpful votes
And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.
2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV / 337 helpful votes
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Hebrews 11:6 ESV / 333 helpful votes
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Jeremiah 36:9 ESV / 314 helpful votes
In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.
Acts 27:33 ESV / 313 helpful votes
As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.
John 3:16-17 ESV / 309 helpful votes
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Matthew 5:1-48 ESV / 307 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. …
