Bible verses about fasting: 50 scriptures organized by purpose

In the bible fasting means deliberately going without food and sometimes even without water - to be focused on prayer and seek God. It shows up across the new and the old testament, in a personal and also in large gatherings.

A famous quote by John Piper on Fasting

Fasting has been mentioned over 70 times across the Bible. It often appears in the moments of major decisions, crisis, repentance, and deep prayer. Jesus himself fasted, Moses fasted. Esther called upon an entire community to fast. The early churches fasted before sending out missionaries.

The pattern is consistent: fasting in the scripture is always connected to something bigger than skipping a meal.

We have listed 50 key verses according to their purpose so you can find exactly which suits your situation the best. Whether you're starting to understand what the Bible says about it, preparing for a fast, or leading a fast.

Bible verses about fasting and prayer

The verses here are directly connected to prayer. Fasting and praying have been mentioned together often in the scripture that separating them misses the point of both.

1. Matthew 6:16-18

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly i tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only yo your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Jesus doesn't introduce fasting here as something new. He assumes his followers already do it and just tells them to do it quietly.

2. Acts 13:2-3

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” “So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”

The church at Antioch was fasting when the Holy spirit gave them direction. They fasted again before sending the missionaries out.

3. Joel 2:12

“Even now,” declares the Lord,

“return to me with all your heart,

with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

God calls his people back to him - not just in words but through fasting, weeping, and mourning.

4. Luke 2:37

"and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worship night and day, fasting and praying."

Anna didn't fast occasionally. It was her daily rhythm - worship, prayer, and fasting together

5. Nehemiah 1:4

“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” When Nehemiah heard Jerusalem was in ruins his first response was to sit down, weep, and fast

When Nehemiah heard Jerusalem was in ruins his first response was to sit down, weep, and fast

6. Daniel 9:3

"So i turned to lord God and pleased with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes."

Daniel didn't just pray. He fasted, wore sackcloth, and sat in ashes - the full posture of someone seeking God seriously.

7. Acts 14:23

“Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”

Before appointing church leaders, Paul and Barnabas prayed and fasted. It wasn't a small decision and they treated it that way.

8. 2 Samuel 12:16

“David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in a sackcloth on the ground.”

David fasted for his sick child and spent his nights on the ground. He wasn't performing - he was desperate.

9. Ezra 8:23

“So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.”

They fasted and asked God for protection on a dangerous journey. God answered.

10. 1Kings 21:27

"when Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on a sackcloth and fasted. He lay in a sackcloth and went around meekly."

When Ahab heard the word of God through Elijah, he fasted and went around quietly. Even a wicked king responded with fasting.

Bible verses about personal fasting

Personal fasting and Private discipline runs through both testaments.

1. Matthew 4:1-2

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”

Jesus fasted for forty days before his public ministry began. Not after a victory - before.

2. Matthew 6:17-18

“But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Fast privately. God sees what others don't.

3. Luke 4:2

“where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.”

Forty days without food while being tempted. Jesus fasted through the hardest season of his life.

4. Daniel 10:3

“ I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.”

Daniel gave up choice food, meat, and wine for three weeks while seeking understanding from God.

5. Psalm 35:13

“Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth

and humbled myself with fasting.

When my prayers returned to me unanswered.”

When others were sick, the psalmist fasted for them. Fasting as an act of care for someone else.

6. Acts 9:9

“For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.”

After his encounter with Jesus on the road, Paul went three days without eating or drinking.

7. 1 Samuel 1:7-8

“This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

Hannah's grief was so deep she couldn't eat. Sometimes fasting isn't chosen - it's the natural result of pain.

8. Luke 18:12

“I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

The Pharisee boasts about fasting twice a week. Jesus uses him as an example of what fasting should not look like.

9. Psalm 69:10

“When I weep and fast,

I must endure scorn”

The psalmist fasted and was mocked for it. Fasting doesn't always look impressive from the outside.

10. Lamentations 2:19

“Arise, cry out in the night,

as the watches of the night begin;

pour out your heart like water

in the presence of the Lord.

Lift up your hands to him

for the lives of your children,

who faint from hunger

at every street corner.”

A cry to pour out your heart to God through the night. Fasting and anguish together before the Lord.

Bible verses for calling a church fast

Here are the passages which are most relevant when the entire congregation fasts together for a shared purpose.

1. Joel 2:15-16

“Blow the trumpet in Zion,

declare a holy fast,

call a sacred assembly.

Gather the people,

consecrate the assembly;

bring together the elders,

gather the children,

those nursing at the breast.

Let the bridegroom leave his room

and the bride her chamber.”

One of the clearest corporate fasting calls in scripture. Everyone gathers - elders, children, even the bride and groom.

2. Ezra 8:21

“There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.”

Ezra called a fast before a risky journey. The goal was to humble themselves and ask God for protection.

3. 2 Chronicles 20:3

“Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.”

Jehoshaphat was afraid of the armies coming against him. His first move was to call a fast for all Judah.

4. Jonah 3:5

“The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.”

When Nineveh heard Jonah's message, they fasted - from the greatest to the least. Nobody sat it out.

5. Esther 4:16

“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

Esther asked all the Jews in Susa to fast for three days before she went before the king at the risk of her life.

6. 1 Samuel 7:6

"When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord .” Now Samuel was serving as leader of Israel at Mizpah."

Israel gathered, fasted, and confessed their sin together. Corporate fasting alongside corporate repentance.

7. Judges 20:26

“Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord.”

After devastating losses in battle, Israel fasted until evening and brought offerings before God.

8. Zechariah 8:19

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.”

God tells his people their fasts will become celebrations. What started as mourning will become joy.

9. Isaiah 58:6

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

God redefines fasting here. The fast he chooses is connected to justice - freeing the oppressed, breaking every yoke.

10. Acts 27:9

“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,”

Paul references the Day of Atonement - the Jewish fast - as a marker of time. Even in a shipwreck story, fasting appears.

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Bible verses for fasting during difficult times

Fasting appears throughout the scriptures during a crisis, grief, and uncertainty.

1. Esther 4:16

Three days of fasting before the most dangerous moment of Esther's life. The fast was preparation, not performance.

2. 2 Samuel 1:12

“They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.”

David and his men fasted when they heard Saul and Jonathan had died. Fasting as grief.

3. Nehemiah 9:1

“On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads.”

The Israelites gathered with fasting, sackcloth, and dust on their heads to confess generations of sin.

4. Psalm 109:24

“My knees give way from fasting;

my body is thin and gaunt.”

The physical cost of fasting is real. The psalmist's knees gave way and his body grew thin.

5. 1 Samuel 31:13

“Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.”

The people fasted seven days after burying Saul. Fasting as a way of honouring the dead and sitting with loss.

6. Joel 1:14

Declare a holy fast;

call a sacred assembly.

Summon the elders

and all who live in the land

to the house of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.”

Joel calls a fast when the land faces crisis. Fasting is the community's response to something they cannot fix on their own.

7. Lamentations 1:11

“All her people groan

as they search for bread;

they barter their treasures for food

to keep themselves alive.

“Look, Lord, and consider,

for I am despised.”

People trading their valuables for food. Fasting here is not chosen - it's the result of devastation.

8. Acts 27:33

“Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food-you haven’t eaten anything.”

Fourteen days adrift without food. Paul urges the crew to eat before dawn - even survival situations appear in fasting passages.

9. Daniel 6:18

“Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.”

The king couldn't eat or sleep the night Daniel was in the lions' den. He didn't call it fasting — but that's what it was.

10. 2 Chronicles 20:3-4

“Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.”

The king couldn't eat or sleep the night Daniel was in the lions' den. Even he fasted without calling it that.

Bible verses on fasting with humility

Fasting which was done for the wrong reason gets addressed directly in the scripture. These verses keep the practice honest.

1. Isaiah 58:3-5

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?

God pushes back hard here. The people fasted but kept exploiting their workers. God says that kind of fasting doesn't reach him.

2. Matthew 6:16

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

Don't make your face look miserable so people know you're fasting. If that's your reason, that's your only reward.

3. Zechariah 7:5

“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?

God asks a direct question - seventy years of fasting, but was it really for me? Fasting done for habit or appearance misses the point.

4. Luke 18:11-12

“The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

The Pharisee lists his fasting as proof he's better than others. Jesus uses him as the example of what not to do.

5. Isaiah 58:6-7

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?”

“Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

The fast God chooses looks like justice and generosity - feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked.

6. James 4:10

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

Humble yourself before God. That's the posture fasting is supposed to reflect.

7. Joel 2:13

“Rend your heart

and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God,

for he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

and he relents from sending calamity.”

Tear your heart, not your clothes. God is after the inside, not the outward sign.

8. Psalm 51:17

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart

you, God, will not despise.”

A broken and contrite heart - that's what God doesn't turn away. Fasting without that is just hunger.

9. Matthew 23:23

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

Jesus rebukes religious leaders who keep small rules but neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness. The same warning applies to fasting.

10. 1Corinthians 13:3

“If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

Even giving your body to hardship counts for nothing without love. Fasting without love is the same.

Conclusion

Fasting is not just about skipping a meal according to the bible. It shows up in the hardest moments - before some crucial decisions, during hard times and grief, when the entire community needs to seek God together.

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Common questions about fasting

How long should a fast last?

Biblical fasts range from one day (Judges 20:26) to three days (Esther 4:16) to forty days (Matthew 4:2). There is no single prescribed length. Most people start with a one-day fast and extend from there based on purpose and physical capacity.

Is fasting only about food?

In most biblical examples, fasting means abstaining from food. Esther 4:16 includes water. Some people extend the idea to other things like media or entertainment, but the primary biblical meaning is food.

What is Daniel Fast?

A partial fast based on Daniel 10:3 no meat, wine, or choice food for three weeks. Commonly practiced as fruits, vegetables, and water only.