TSK · Ezra 8:21

It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls; it is a statute forever.

Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn't it be better for us to return into Egypt?"

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.

Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava; and there we encamped three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi.

Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth on them.

Lead me, Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face.

From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.

They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them.

Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.

In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their God.

Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.

The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself."