Esther 4:16 "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise;"

Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q421 Fragment 1 / Ways of Righteousness) "He who afflicts his spirit through hunger, let him guard his tongue from evil speech and his hands from violence, lest his fast become an abomination."

Sirach 34:26 (Ethiopian Deuterocanon / Apocrypha) "A man that fasteth for his sins, and goeth again, and doeth the same: who will hear his prayer? or what doth his humbling profit him?"

1 Samuel 14:24 "And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies."

Zechariah 7:5 "Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?"

1 Enoch 108:7-9 "Who loved God and loved neither gold nor silver... but afflicted their bodies and refrained from earthly pleasures, holding a pure spirit before the Lord."

Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q513 Fragment 2 / Ordinance Text) "Concerning the fast of the seventh month... no man shall consume any food or drink, nor do any work, lest he profanes the holy sabbath of the fast."

Tobit 12:8 (Ethiopian Deuterocanon / Apocrypha) "Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with unrighteousness."

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QS 1:16-17 / Community Rule) "They shall not depart from any of the commands of God in all their appointed times... affliction of the soul and fasting shall be kept according to the precise statutes of the Covenant."

2 Chronicles 20:3 "And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah."

Psalm 35:13 "But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom."

Luke 2:37 "And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day."

Nehemiah 1:4 "And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,"

Acts 13:2-3 "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away."

Daniel 10:2-3 "In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled."

Joel 2:12-13 "Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God:"

Ezra 8:23 "So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us."

Matthew 6:16-18 "Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast... But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret:"

Isaiah 58:6-7 "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?"