Original collection
Fasting Going without food or other things so as to focus concentration and devotion on God. Fasting usually includes extended time in prayer.
Key KJV Scriptures:
Matthew 6:16-18; 9:14-15; Acts 13:2-3; 14:23
Key KJV Scriptures: Full Text
81 indexed verses · Showing 1–40. Read each passage in its chapter context.
Exodus 24:18 (KJV)
And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
Exodus 34:28 (KJV)
And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Deuteronomy 9:9 (KJV)
When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
Deuteronomy 9:18 (KJV)
And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
Judges 20:26 (KJV)
Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
1 Samuel 7:6 (KJV)
And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
1 Samuel 31:13 (KJV)
And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
2 Samuel 1:12 (KJV)
And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.
2 Samuel 3:35 (KJV)
And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David sware, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down.
2 Samuel 12:16 (KJV)
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
2 Samuel 12:17 (KJV)
And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.
2 Samuel 12:18 (KJV)
And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?
2 Samuel 12:19 (KJV)
But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
2 Samuel 12:20 (KJV)
Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
2 Samuel 12:21 (KJV)
Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
2 Samuel 12:22 (KJV)
And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?
1 Kings 19:8 (KJV)
And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
1 Kings 21:27 (KJV)
And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
1 Chronicles 10:12 (KJV)
They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
2 Chronicles 20:3 (KJV)
And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
Ezra 8:21 (KJV)
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
Ezra 8:22 (KJV)
For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.
Ezra 8:23 (KJV)
So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.
Ezra 10:6 (KJV)
Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.
Nehemiah 1:4 (KJV)
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
Nehemiah 9:1 (KJV)
Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
Nehemiah 9:2 (KJV)
And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
Esther 4:16 (KJV)
Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
Psalms 35:13 (KJV)
But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.
Psalms 69:10 (KJV)
When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.
Psalms 109:4 (KJV)
For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.
Psalms 109:24 (KJV)
My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.
Isaiah 58:3 (KJV)
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
Isaiah 58:4 (KJV)
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
Isaiah 58:5 (KJV)
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Isaiah 58:6 (KJV)
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isaiah 58:7 (KJV)
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Jeremiah 14:12 (KJV)
When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
Jeremiah 36:9 (KJV)
And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.
Daniel 6:18 (KJV)
Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him.
Reference selections include Orville J. Nave’s public-domain topical index, via Brady Stephenson’s bible-data (CC BY 4.0). Titles and references have been normalized, duplicates merged, and references checked against the site’s KJV. This is a passage-finding aid; its classifications do not establish doctrine.