| Reference | Extent | Summary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Exodus 24:18, Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 9:9, Deuteronomy 18, Deuteronomy 10:10 | individual | Moses twice spends forty days on Mount Sinai without eating or drinking, and in mourning over Israel’s sin. |
| Judges 20:26 | corporate | Israel fasts until evening to inquire of YHWH after loss to Benjamin. |
| 1 Samuel 1:7-8 | individual | Hannah weeps and refuses to eat when her husband’s other wife provokes her, and she prays for a son. |
| 1 Samuel 7:6 | corporate | Israel fasts for a day to repent, Samuel prays, YHWH delivers them from the Philistines. |
| 1 Samuel 14:24-46 | corporate | Saul places the army under oath not to eat until evening on the day of battle with the Philistines. |
| 1 Samuel 20:34 | individual | Jonathan refuses to eat because of his grief over his father’s mistreatment of David. |
| 1 Samuel 28:20 | individual | Saul eats nothing all day and night when he consults with the witch of En-dor. |
| 1 Sam 31:13; 1 Chr 10:12 | corporate | Men of Jabesh fast seven days after recovering the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from the Philistines. |
| 2 Sam 1:12 | corporate | David’s men fast until evening upon hearing the news of the death of Saul and Jonathan. |
| 2 Sam 3:35 | individual(?) | David refuses to eat food until evening when he heard of the death of Abner. |
| 2 Sam 12:16-23 | individual | David fasts and weeps seven days during the terminal illness of his son by Bathsheba. |
| 1 Kgs 13:1-22 | individual | An unnamed prophet is instructed by God not to eat or drink while on a mission to prophesy against Jeroboam’s idolatry. |
| 1 Kgs 19:8 | individual | Elijah goes forty days on the strength of the food provided to him by an angel. |
| 1 Kgs 21:4 | individual | Ahab eats no food because he is sullen after Naboth refused to sell his vineyard. |
| 1 Kgs 21:9-12 | corporate | Jezebel calls a false day of fasting to accuse Naboth of cursing God. |
| 1 Kgs 21:27-29 | individual | Ahab fasts and puts on sackcloth in repentance after Elijah rebuked him, and God recognized Ahab’s humility. |
| 2 Chr 20:3 | corporate | Jehoshaphat proclaims a fast throughout Judah to seek YHWH for fear of the armies of Ammon and Moab. |
| Ezra 8:21-23 | corporate | Ezra calls a fast to seek God’s protection for those leaving Babylon for Israel. |
| Ezra 10:6 | individual | Ezra eats and drinks nothing because of his mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. |
| Neh 1:4 | individual | Nehemiah mourns and fasts for days over the news of the state of Jerusalem, confessing national sin. |
| Neh 9:1 | corporate | The people of Israel assemble with fasting to confess their sin after Ezra reads from the law. |
| Esth 4:3 | corporate | The Jews weep and fast when they hear of the king’s decree for their destruction. |
| Esth 4:16 | corporate | Esther, her maidens, and the Jews of Susa fast from food and drink for three days before she goes to the king. |
| Esth 9:31 | corporate | Purim is established for the Jews with instructions for fasting and lamentations. |
| Job 3:24 | individual | Job groans at the sight of food, and experiences great affliction and pain. |
| Job 33:19-20 | individual | Elihu suggests that man (specifically, Job) is afflicted by God and unable to eat because God is chastening him. |
| Ps 35:13 | individual | David defends his honor by saying that he fasted and prayed when his enemies were sick. |
| Ps 42:3 | individual | The psalmist (Sons of Korah) says that tears are his food day and night. |
| Ps 69:10 | individual | David’s fasting, weeping and prayer was an object of scorn by his enemies. |
| Ps 102:4 | individual | The afflicted psalmist forgets to eat bread because of his great grief. |
| Ps 107:17-18 | individual | People in distress are pictured as near death, unable to eat, but YHWH saves them. |
| Ps 109:24 | individual | David says his knees are weak from fasting, and his flesh has grown lean during his affliction from his enemies. |
| Isa 58:3-6 | corporate | Israel’s fasts are not heard by God because of their oppression and hypocrisy; He desires righteousness first. |
| Jer 14:12 | corporate | Israel’s fasts are not heard by God because of their oppression and hypocrisy. |
| Jer 36:6-9 | corporate | The people of Judah assemble in Jerusalem for a fast, and Baruch reads Jeremiah’s prophecy to them. |
| Ezek 24:18 | individual | Ezekiel is instructed in special mourning rites, that include fasting, for the death of his wife. |
| Dan 6:18 | individual | Darius fasts from food, entertainment, and sleep through the night while worrying for Daniel in the lion’s den. |
| Dan 9:3 | individual | Daniel fasts, confessing Israel’s sin, upon reading Jeremiah’s prophecy of the seventy weeks. |
| Dan 10:2-3 | individual | Daniel mourns for three weeks, abstaining from tasty food, meat, wine, and ointment. |
| Joel 1:14 | corporate | Joel calls for a nation-wide fast because of famine that is destroying the land. |
| Joel 2:12-15 | corporate | YHWH calls the people to return to Him with fasting, rending their hearts, not garments; Joel again calls for a fast. |
| Jonah 3:5 | corporate | All of Nineveh fasts, repenting at the preaching of Jonah of the destruction of the city. |
| Zech 7:5 | corporate | YHWH rebukes the priests for their ritual fasts that were done more for themselves than for Him. |
| Zech 8:19 | corporate | YHWH will transform the ritual fasts into feasts of joy when God’s people have repented of sin and He grants them favor. |
| Reference | Extent | Summary |
| Matt 4:2; Luke 4:2 | individual | Jesus fasts forty days in the wilderness, being tempted by the devil. |
| Matt 6:16-18 | individual | Jesus teaches that fasting should be done privately for God, not for the purpose of being seen to be fasting, like the hypocrites. |
| Matt 9:14-15; Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33-35 | corporate | Jesus tells John’s disciples that his do not fast because the bridegroom is present, but when He is taken away they will. |
| Matt 15:32; Mark 8:3 | corporate | Jesus did not wish to send the crowd away fasting, since they had been with Him three days and have nothing (more?) to eat. |
| Matt 17:21; Mark 9:29 | individual? | Jesus says that this kind of demon goes out only by means of prayer and fasting. |
| Luke 2:37 | individual | Anna serves in the temple night and day with fastings and prayers. |
| Luke 18:12 | individual | The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable shows his self-righteousness by boasting that he fasts twice a week and tithes. |
| Acts 9:9 | individual | Saul fasted from food and water three days after the Damascus Road experience. |
| Acts 10:30 | individual | Cornelius was fasting and praying when an angel instructed him to go to Peter. |
| Acts 13:2-3 | corporate | Prophets and teachers in Antioch were ministering to the Lord and fasting before and after the Holy Spirit set apart Saul and Barnabas. |
| Acts 14:23 | corporate | Paul and Barnabas appoint elders in the churches, having prayed with fasting. |
| Acts 23:12 | corporate | Certain Jews bind themselves by oath not to eat or drink until they kill Paul. |
| Acts 27:9 | corporate | Paul’s voyage to Rome takes place after “the fast” was over, a reference to the Day of Atonement. |
| Acts 27:33 | corporate | Paul encourages the ship’s crew to eat, since they had gone 14 days fasting. |
| 1 Cor 7:5 | couples | Paul tells couples not to deprive one another sexually, except for brief periods devoted to prayer and fasting. |
| 2 Cor 6:5; 2 Cor 11:27 | individual | Paul lists “fastings” among the hardships he suffered as a mark of his apostleship. |
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