Matthew 6:16
English Standard Version
Fasting
16 “And (A)when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. (B)Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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Isaiah 58:3-5
English Standard Version
3 (A)‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,[a]
(B)and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5 (C)Is such the fast that I choose,
(D)a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord?
Footnotes
- Isaiah 58:3 Or pursue your own business
Matthew 9:14-15
English Standard Version
A Question About Fasting
14 Then (A)the disciples of John came to him, saying, (B)“Why do we and (C)the Pharisees fast,[a] but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, (D)“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? (E)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and (F)then they will fast.
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- Matthew 9:14 Some manuscripts add much, or often
Nehemiah 1:4
English Standard Version
Nehemiah's Prayer
4 As soon as I heard these words I (A)sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the (B)God of heaven.
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Luke 18:12
English Standard Version
12 (A)I fast twice a week; (B)I give tithes of all that I get.’
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Daniel 9:3
English Standard Version
3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by (A)prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
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Mark 2:18
English Standard Version
A Question About Fasting
18 Now (A)John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, (B)“Why do John's disciples and (C)the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
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Psalm 69:10
English Standard Version
10 When I wept and humbled[a] my soul with fasting,
it became my reproach.
Footnotes
- Psalm 69:10 Hebrew lacks and humbled
Psalm 35:13
English Standard Version
13 But I, (A)when they were sick—
I (B)wore sackcloth;
I (C)afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed (D)with head bowed[a] on my chest.
Footnotes
- Psalm 35:13 Or my prayer shall turn back
Acts 14:23
English Standard Version
23 And when they had (A)appointed (B)elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting (C)they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
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Matthew 6:5
English Standard Version
The Lord's Prayer
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love (A)to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. (B)Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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Matthew 6:2
English Standard Version
2 (A)“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may (B)be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have (C)received their reward.
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Zechariah 7:3-5
English Standard Version
3 (A)saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and (B)the prophets, “Should I weep and (C)abstain in (D)the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: 5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in (E)the fifth month and in (F)the seventh, for these (G)seventy years, (H)was it (I)for me that you fasted?
Read full chapterThe Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.