¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,

³ Wash,^(A) put on perfume,^(B) and get dressed in your best clothes.^(C) Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.^(D)

⁸ Always be clothed in white,^(A) and always anoint your head with oil.

² At that time I, Daniel, mourned^(A) for three weeks. ³ I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips;^(B) and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.

²⁰ Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed,^(A) put on lotions and changed his clothes,^(B) he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.

² So Joab sent someone to Tekoa^(A) and had a wise woman^(B) brought from there. He said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don’t use any cosmetic lotions.^(C) Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead.