The best Bible verses for fasting include passages about God's love, strength, and guidance. This page features 15+ carefully curated Scripture passages for fasting, each selected for its relevance and depth. Read, save, and share the perfect verse for your situation.
"Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered,"Psalms 35:13
"Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered,"Psalms 35:13
"‘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."Isaiah 58:3
"So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns."Jeremiah 36:6
"In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a time of fasting before the Lord was proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah."Jeremiah 36:9
"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.”"Acts 13:2
"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."Acts 14:23
"So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes."Daniel 9:3
"“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”"Joel 2:12
"Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name."Deuteronomy 10:20
"If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him—"Deuteronomy 11:22
"It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him."Deuteronomy 13:4
"I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah."Isaiah 22:21
"Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”"Isaiah 56:2
Scripture returns to fasting often enough that no single verse covers it. The 15 passages below come from across the Old and New Testaments, and they do not all say the same thing — read together they give a fuller picture than any one of them does alone.
Each links to a study page with the full passage, its context, and the text in six translations, so a verse that catches your attention can be followed properly rather than left as a fragment.
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The most-cited Bible verses for fasting are Psalms 35:13, Psalms 109:24, Isaiah 58:3. This page collects 15 of them, each with its full passage, context and the text in six translations.
Read the verse in its surrounding passage before you use it — a verse that fits in isolation sometimes says something different in context. Compare two translations where the wording is unclear, and pick for the person who will read it rather than for the theme.
Scripture returns to fasting across both testaments rather than settling it in one passage, which is why the verses on this page do not all say the same thing. Read together they give a fuller answer than any single verse does.
There is no single best translation. The NIV and NLT read most naturally and communicate well to someone outside the church; the ESV and NASB stay closer to the original wording; the KJV carries the phrasing most people recognise. Every verse here links to a page showing all six side by side.
More than any page can list. This one carries the 15 that are most often turned to for fasting, chosen so each stands on its own and links through to the full chapter it belongs to.