Lexicon :: Strong's G3521 - nēsteia

David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted, went home, and spent the night lying on the ground.

In the letters, she wrote:

Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people.

They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people.

Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he resolved to seek the LORD. Then he proclaimed a fast for all Judah,

I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River,[fn] so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us, our dependents, and all our possessions.

On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting, wearing sackcloth, and had put dust on their heads.

Yet when they were sick,

my clothing was sackcloth;

I humbled myself with fasting,

and my prayer was genuine.[fn]

I mourned and fasted,

but it brought me insults.

My knees are weak from fasting,

and my body is emaciated.[fn]

“Stop bringing useless offerings.

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons and Sabbaths,

and the calling of solemn assemblies —

I cannot stand iniquity with a festival.

“Why have we fasted, but you have not seen?

We have denied ourselves, but you haven’t noticed! ”[fn]

“Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast,

and oppress all your workers.

“Will the fast I choose be like this:

A day for a person to deny himself,

to bow his head like a reed,

and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast

and a day acceptable to the LORD?

“so you must go and read from the scroll ​— ​which you wrote at my dictation[fn] ​— ​the words of the LORD in the hearing of the people at the temple of the LORD on a day of fasting. Read his words in the hearing of all the Judeans who are coming from their cities.

In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people of Jerusalem and all those coming in from Judah’s cities into Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the LORD.

So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Announce a sacred fast;

proclaim a solemn assembly!

Gather the elders

and all the residents of the land

at the house of the LORD your God,

and cry out to the LORD.

Even now —

this is the LORD’s declaration —

turn to me with all your heart,

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Blow the ram’s horn in Zion!

Announce a sacred fast;

proclaim a solemn assembly.

Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth ​— ​from the greatest of them to the least.

“Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?

The LORD of Armies says this: “The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will become times of joy, gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah. Therefore, love truth and peace.”