Fasting
46 passages listed in Nave’s Topical Bible and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook. Verse text: Berean Standard Bible; links open in your translation.
47 sections
- Accompanied by Confession of Sin
- Accompanied by Humiliation
- Accompanied by Mourning
- Accompanied by Prayer
- Afflictions
- Approaching Danger
- At the Time of his Vision
- Confession of Sin
- During Forty Days: Jesus
- During Forty Days: Moses
- During the Sickness of the Child Born to Him by Bath-Sheba
- Extraordinary Exemplified: Elijah
- Extraordinary Exemplified: Moses
- Extraordinary Exemplified: Our Lord
- Fasting in the Conflict Between the Other Tribes with the Tribe of Benjamin
- Habitual by Anna
- Habitual by Cornelius
- Habitual by John's Disciples
- Habitual by Paul
- Habitual by Pharisees
- Humiliation
- National Exemplified: Israel
- National Exemplified: Men of Jabesh-Gilead
- National Exemplified: Ninevites
- Ninevites, when Jonah Preached to Them
- Not to be Made a Subject of Display
- Observed on Occasions of Afflictions of Others
- Observed on Occasions of Afflictions of the Church
- Observed on Occasions of Approaching Danger
- Observed on Occasions of Judgments of God
- Observed on Occasions of Ordination of Ministers
- Observed on Occasions of Private Afflictions
- Observed on Occasions of Public Calamities
- On Account of the Captivity of the People, with Prayer for Their Deliverance
- Ordination of Ministers
- Private Afflictions
- Prolonged for Forty Days, by Moses
- Prolonged for Three Weeks, by Daniel
- Prolonged: Elijah
- Prolonged: Jesus
- Promises Connected With
- should be to God
- Spirit of, Explained
- Unclassified Scriptures Relating To
- Upon the Death of Saul
- when They Went to Mizpeh for the Ark of the Covenant
- While Interceding in Prayer for his Friends
Accompanied by Confession of Sin
- 1 Samuel 7:6 When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.
- Nehemiah 9:1–2 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads. …
Accompanied by Humiliation
- Deuteronomy 9:18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and …
- Nehemiah 9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads.
Accompanied by Mourning
- Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
Accompanied by Prayer
- Ezra 8:23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and He granted our request.
- Daniel 9:3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
Afflictions
- Psalm 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- Daniel 6:18 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No entertainment was brought before him, and sleep fled from him.
Approaching Danger
- Esther 4:16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the …
At the Time of his Vision
- Daniel 10:1–3 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, who was called Belteshazzar. The message was true, and it concerned a great conflict. And the understanding of the message was given to him in a vision. …
Confession of Sin
- 1 Samuel 7:6 When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.
- Nehemiah 9:1–2 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads. …
During Forty Days: Jesus
- Matthew 4:1–2 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. …
- Mark 1:12–13 At once the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, …
- Luke 4:1–2 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, …
During Forty Days: Moses
- Deuteronomy 9:9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
- Deuteronomy 9:18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and …
During the Sickness of the Child Born to Him by Bath-Sheba
- 2 Samuel 12:16–22 David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground. …
Extraordinary Exemplified: Elijah
- 1 Kings 19:8 So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
Extraordinary Exemplified: Moses
- Exodus 34:28 So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant — the Ten Commandments.
- Deuteronomy 9:9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
- Deuteronomy 9:18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and …
Extraordinary Exemplified: Our Lord
- Matthew 4:2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
Fasting in the Conflict Between the Other Tribes with the Tribe of Benjamin
- Judges 20:26 Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, where they sat weeping before the LORD. That day they fasted until evening and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD.
Habitual by Anna
- Luke 2:37 and then was a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
Habitual by Cornelius
- Acts 10:30 Cornelius answered: “Four days ago I was in my house praying at this, the ninth hour. Suddenly a man in radiant clothing stood before me
Habitual by John's Disciples
- Matthew 9:14 Then John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast so often, but Your disciples do not fast?”
Habitual by Paul
- 2 Corinthians 6:5 in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger;
- 2 Corinthians 11:27 in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
Habitual by Pharisees
- Matthew 9:14 Then John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast so often, but Your disciples do not fast?”
- Mark 2:18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were often fasting. So people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t Your disciples fast like John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees?”
- Luke 18:12 I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’
Humiliation
- Deuteronomy 9:18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and …
- Nehemiah 9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads.
National Exemplified: Israel
- Judges 20:26 Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, where they sat weeping before the LORD. That day they fasted until evening and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD.
- Ezra 8:21 And 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.
- Esther 4:3 In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
- Esther 4:16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the …
- Jeremiah 36:9 Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.
National Exemplified: Men of Jabesh-Gilead
- 1 Samuel 31:13 Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
National Exemplified: Ninevites
- Jonah 3:5–8 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. …
Ninevites, when Jonah Preached to Them
- Jonah 3:5–10 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. …
Not to be Made a Subject of Display
- Matthew 6:16–18 When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. …
Observed on Occasions of Afflictions of Others
- Psalm 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- Daniel 6:18 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No entertainment was brought before him, and sleep fled from him.
Observed on Occasions of Afflictions of the Church
- Luke 5:33–35 Then they said to Him, “John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees frequently fast and pray, but Yours keep on eating and drinking.” …
Observed on Occasions of Approaching Danger
- Esther 4:16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the …
Observed on Occasions of Judgments of God
Observed on Occasions of Ordination of Ministers
- Acts 13:3 And after they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
- Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, praying and fasting as they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.
Observed on Occasions of Private Afflictions
- 2 Samuel 12:16 David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.
Observed on Occasions of Public Calamities
- 2 Samuel 1:12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
On Account of the Captivity of the People, with Prayer for Their Deliverance
- Daniel 9:3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
Ordination of Ministers
- Acts 13:3 And after they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
- Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, praying and fasting as they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.
Private Afflictions
- 2 Samuel 12:16 David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.
Prolonged for Forty Days, by Moses
- Exodus 24:18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
- Exodus 34:28 So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant — the Ten Commandments.
- Deuteronomy 9:9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
- Deuteronomy 9:18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and …
Prolonged for Three Weeks, by Daniel
- Daniel 10:2–3 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks. …
Prolonged: Elijah
- 1 Kings 19:8 So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
Prolonged: Jesus
- Matthew 4:2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
Promises Connected With
- Isaiah 58:8–12 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. …
- Matthew 6:18 so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
should be to God
- Zechariah 7:5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
- Matthew 6:18 so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Spirit of, Explained
- Isaiah 58:6–7 Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke? …
Unclassified Scriptures Relating To
- Ezra 8:21–23 And 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. …
- Psalm 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- Psalm 69:10 I wept and fasted, but it brought me reproach.
- Isaiah 58:3–7 “Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers. …
- Jeremiah 14:12 Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
- Daniel 10:3 I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.
- Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
- Joel 2:12–13 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” …
- Zechariah 7:5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
- Zechariah 8:19 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy and gladness, cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore you are to love both truth and peace.”
- Matthew 6:16–18 When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. …
- Matthew 9:14–15 Then John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast so often, but Your disciples do not fast?” …
- Matthew 17:21
- Acts 27:9 By now much time had passed, and the voyage had already become dangerous because it was after the Fast. So Paul advised them,
- Acts 27:33–34 Right up to daybreak, Paul kept urging them all to eat: “Today is your fourteenth day in constant suspense, without taking any food. …
- 1 Corinthians 7:5 Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
Upon the Death of Saul
- 2 Samuel 1:12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
when They Went to Mizpeh for the Ark of the Covenant
- 1 Samuel 7:6 When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.
While Interceding in Prayer for his Friends
- Psalm 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
Related topics
Fasting of Saints ExemplifiedFasting of HypocritesFasting of the WickedFasting in Babylon, with Prayer for Divine Deliverance and GuidanceFasting in Prayer for Himself and his AdversariesFasting in Times of Bereavement of the People of Jabesh-Gilead, for Saul and his Sons
Topics: Nave’s Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey’s New Topical Textbook (1897), public domain, via the Berean Bible topical index.