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Jehoshaphat was afraid; he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.(A)

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Then I turned to the Lord God to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.(A)

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Nevertheless, some good is found in you, for you destroyed the sacred poles[a] out of the land and have set your heart to seek God.”(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 19.3 Or Asherahs

12 Yet even now, says the Lord,
    return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;(A)
13     rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,
    and relenting from punishment.(B)
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?(C)

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;(D)
16     gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
    assemble the aged;
gather the children,
    even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
    and the bride her canopy.(E)

17 Between the vestibule and the altar,
    let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
    and do not make your heritage a mockery,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’ ”(F)

God’s Response and Promise

18 Then the Lord became jealous for his land
    and had pity on his people.(G)

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14 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.(A)

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In the fifth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.(A)

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So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord. They fasted that day and said, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.(A)

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28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 10.28 Gk Gehenna

And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.(A)

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.(B) Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water.(C) Humans and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.(D) Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”(E)

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They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.(A) It may be that the Lord your God heard the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”(B)

[[When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master: Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.(C)

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when I am afraid,
    I put my trust in you.(A)
In God, whose word I praise,
    in God I trust; I am not afraid;
    what can flesh do to me?(B)

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16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”(A)

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Fasting and Prayer for Protection

21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the River Ahava, that we might humble ourselves[a] before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions.(A) 22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and cavalry to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king that the hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him.(B) 23 So we fasted and petitioned our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 8.21 Or fast

16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.(A)

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16 Those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.(A)

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26 Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went back to Bethel and wept, sitting there before the Lord; they fasted that day until evening. Then they offered burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being before the Lord.(A)

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24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.(A) 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”(B) 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man[a] said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,[b] for you have striven with God and with humans[c] and have prevailed.”(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 32.28 Heb he
  2. 32.28 That is, the one who strives with God or God strives
  3. 32.28 Or with divine and human beings

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two companies,(A) thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.”

And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’(B) 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.(C) 11 Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children.(D)

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