Fasting in the OT

[tonychanyt]

English Standard Version, Leviticus 16:

29 And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month,

i.e., the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur

you shall afflict yourselves

i.e., stop eating

and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. 30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins.

Acts 27:9 alludes to this day of fast:

Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them,

NIV:

Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them,

Even today, Jews observe this holy day with a day-long fast. The OT also recorded fasting on a voluntary basis.

Moses fasted in Exodus 34:

28 So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

Daniel fasted in Daniel 10:

2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. 3 I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.

David and his men fasted in 2 Samuel 1:

12 And they mourned and wept and fasted [H6684] until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

H6684 צוּם (tsum) occurs 21 times, Brown-Driver-Briggs:

[צוּם] verb abstain from food, fast

In the OT, fasting means abstaining from eating for a period of time.

Joel called for private fasting in Joel 2:

12“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting [H6685], with weeping, and with mourning;

and public fasting,

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;

H6685 occurs 26 times.

See also Fasting in the NT.