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Want to know what the Bible says about Fasting? Here are 171 Bible verses about Fasting from the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV), sorted from the most relevant to the least relevant.

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Note: Always check the context of a verse; Click the "Read Full Chapter" button next to each verse to read more. The context of a verse might put a very different slant on what the verse seems to say.

Matthew 6:16-18 NIV
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. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 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.
2054
Joel 2:12 NIV
“Even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
1073
Matthew 6:18 NIV
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.
804
Daniel 10:3 NIV
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.
800
Acts 14:23 NIV
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.
766
Isaiah 58:6 NIV
“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?
614
Luke 4:2 NIV
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.
592
1 Corinthians 7:5 NIV
Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
571
Nehemiah 1:4 NIV
When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
539
Matthew 4:4 NIV
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
530
Psalm 35:13 NIV
Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth
    and humbled myself with fasting.
When my prayers returned to me unanswered,
530
Ezra 8:23 NIV
So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
526
Acts 13:2 NIV
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.”
492
Luke 2:37 NIV
and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
459
Ezra 8:21-23 NIV
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. 22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him. 23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
450
Esther 4:16 NIV
“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.”
416
Acts 13:3 NIV
So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
401
Daniel 9:3 NIV
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
391

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