And Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set his face to seek the Lord earnestly, and he proclaimed a fast in all Judah.

And Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went to the treasury of Johanan the son of Eliashib. And when he came there, he ate no bread, and drank no water, for he mourned over the unfaithfulness [of those] of the captivity.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel assembled with fasting, and in sackcloth, and with ashes on their head.

And the children of Israel separated themselves from every stranger, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

And in every province where the letters were published, [there was] crying and lamentation and great mourning on the part of the Jews: they spread for themselves sackcloth and ashes.

Go and assemble the Jews that are in Susa, and fast for me, and eat not and drink not for three days, night and day. And I also and my maidens will fast, and then I will go in to the king contrary to the law, even if I must die.

And I set my face toward the Lord God, to seek [Him] diligently by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth.

we have committed iniquity, we have transgressed, and we have departed and turned aside from Your commandments and from Your judgments;

To you, O Lord, [belongs] righteousness, and to us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, to them that are near, and to them that are far off in all the earth, wherever You have scattered them, for the sin which they have committed.

To you, O Lord our God, [belong] compassion and forgiveness, whereas we have departed [from You.]

Moreover, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and have refused to heed Your voice; so the curse has come upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.

As it is written in the Law of Moses, all these evils have come upon us: yet we have not sought after the Lord our God, that we might turn away from our iniquities, and have understanding in all Your truth.

And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made to Yourself a name, as [it is] this day; we have sinned, we have transgressed.

And now, O lord our God, hearken to the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and cause Your face to shine on Your desolate sanctuary, for Your [name's] sake, O Lord.

Hearken, O Lord; be propitious, O Lord; attend, O Lord; delay not, O my God, for Your own sake; for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

Speak to the whole people of the land, and to the priests, saying, Though you fasted or lamented in the fifth or seventh [months] (yea, behold, these seventy years) have you at all fasted to Me?

saying, Why have we fasted, and You did not see? [Why] have we afflicted our souls, and You did not know it? Nay, in the days of your fasts you find your pleasures, and all them that are under your power you wound.

And this shall be a perpetual statute for you; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls, and shall do no work, the native and the stranger who abides among you.

And because of the word, Ahab was pierced with sorrow before the Lord, and he both went weeping, and tore his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his body, and fasted; he put on sackcloth also in the day that he smote Naboth the Jezreelite, and went his way.

Have you seen how Ahab has been pricked [to the heart] before Me? I will not bring on the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring on the evil.

And it came to pass, when the king of Israel heard the words of the woman, [that] he tore his clothes; and he passed by on the wall, and the people saw sackcloth upon his flesh.

And he took a potsherd to scrape away the discharge, and sat upon a dung heap outside the city.

And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

And proclamation was made, and it was commanded in Nineveh by the king and by his great men, saying, Let not men, or cattle, or oxen, or sheep, taste any thing, nor feed, nor drink water.

Thus says the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I have formed you, and given you for a covenant of the nations, to establish the earth, and to cause to inherit the desert heritages;

to declare the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense; to comfort all that mourn;

But I [will cry] to You, O Lord, in my prayer; O God, it is a propitious time: in the multitude of Your mercy hear me, in the truth of Your salvation.

To preach the acceptable year of the LORD."

And do not fashion yourselves after this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and well pleasing and perfect will of God.

you also, as living stones, are being built [into] a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.