My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.

But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.

They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, “Who can see them?”

When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.

My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat.

Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast.

She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.

he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast

And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house.

In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”

Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror.

Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—

True and False Fasting

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.

‘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, and oppress all your workers.

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.

Is such the fast that I choose, 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?

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.

They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.

Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”