Imamat 23:27

23:27 “The ¹  tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. ²  It is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must humble yourselves ³  and present a gift to the Lord.

Imamat 23:2

23:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘These are the Lord’s appointed times which you must proclaim as holy assemblies – my appointed times: ⁴ 

Imamat 20:3

20:3 I myself will set my face ⁵  against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, ⁶  because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. ⁷ 

Nehemia 9:1

The People Acknowledge Their Sin before God

9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.

Ester 4:16

4:16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I ⁸  will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. ⁹  If I perish, I perish!”

Yesaya 58:1-3

The Lord Desires Genuine Devotion

58:1 “Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet!

Yell as loud as a trumpet!

Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; ¹⁰ 

confront Jacob’s family with their sin! ¹¹ 

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ¹² 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

58:3 They lament, ¹³  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast?

Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ¹⁴ 

you oppress your workers. ¹⁵ 

Yoel 1:13

1:13 Get dressed ¹⁶  and lament, you priests!

Wail, you who minister at the altar!

Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,

because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple of your God anymore. ¹⁷ 

Yoel 2:12-17

An Appeal for Repentance

2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,

“return to me with all your heart –

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Tear your hearts, ¹⁸ 

not just your garments!”

2:13 Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ¹⁹  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ²⁰ 

2:14 Who knows?

Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, ²¹ 

and leave blessing in his wake ²²  –

a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! ²³ 

2:15 Blow the trumpet ²⁴  in Zion.

Announce a holy fast;

proclaim a sacred assembly!

2:16 Gather the people;

sanctify an assembly!

Gather the elders;

gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom

and the bride from her private quarters. ²⁵ 

2:17 Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep

from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ²⁶ 

Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people;

please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,

to become a proverb ²⁷  among the nations.

Why should it be said ²⁸  among the peoples,

“Where is their God?”

Yunus 3:5

3:5 The people ²⁹  of Nineveh believed in God, ³⁰  and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ³¹ 

Zakharia 7:5-6

7:5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ³²  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed? 7:6 And now when you eat and drink, are you not doing so for yourselves?’”

Zakharia 8:19

8:19 “The Lord who rules over all says, ‘The fast of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth ³³  months will become joyful and happy, pleasant feasts for the house of Judah, so love truth and peace.’

[23:27]  ¹ tn Heb “Surely the tenth day” or perhaps “Precisely the tenth day.” The Hebrew adverbial particle אַךְ (’akh) is left untranslated by most recent English versions; cf. however NASB “On exactly the tenth day.”

[23:27]  ² sn See the description of this day and its regulations in Lev 16 and the notes there.

[23:27]  ³ tn Heb “you shall humble your souls.” See the note on Lev 16:29 above.

[23:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “these are them, my appointed times.”

[23:2]  sn The term מוֹעֵד (mo’ed, rendered “appointed time” here) can refer to either a time or place of meeting. See the note on “tent of meeting” (אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ohel mo’ed) in Lev 1:1.

[20:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “And I, I shall give my faces.”

[20:3]  ⁶ sn On the “cut off” penalty see the notes on Lev 7:20 and 17:4.

[20:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “for the sake of defiling my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.”

[4:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “I and my female attendants.” The translation reverses the order for stylistic reasons.

[4:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “which is not according to the law” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “contrary to the law.”

[58:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “declare to my people their rebellion.”

[58:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and to the house of Jacob their sin.” The verb “declare” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[58:2]  ¹² tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[58:3]  ¹³ tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

[58:3]  ¹⁵ tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

[1:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “put on.” There is no object present in the Hebrew text, but many translations assume “sackcloth” to be the understood object of the verb “put on.” Its absence in the Hebrew text of v. 13 is probably due to metrical considerations. The meter here is 3 + 3, and that has probably influenced the prophet’s choice of words.

[1:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.”

[2:12]  ¹⁸ sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

[2:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[2:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “turn” or “turn back.”

[2:14]  ²² tn Heb “leave a blessing behind him.”

[2:14]  ²³ tn The phrase “for you to offer” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[2:15]  ²⁴ tn See the note on this term in 2:1.

[2:16]  ²⁵ sn Mosaic law allowed men recently married, or about to be married, to be exempt for a year from certain duties that were normally mandatory, such as military obligation (cf. Deut 20:7; 24:5). However, Joel pictures a time of such urgency that normal expectations must give way to higher requirements.

[2:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “between the vestibule and the altar.” The vestibule was located at the entrance of the temple and the altar was located at the other end of the building. So “between the vestibule and the altar” is a merism referring to the entire structure. The priestly lament permeates the entire house of worship.

[2:17]  ²⁷ tn For the MT reading לִמְשָׁל (limshol, an infinitive, “to rule”), one should instead read לְמָשָׁל (lÿmashal, a noun, “to a byword”). While the consonantal Hebrew text permits either, the context suggests that the concern here is more one of not wanting to appear abandoned by God to ongoing economic depression rather than one of concern over potential political subjection of Israel (cf. v. 19). The possibility that the form in the MT is an infinitive construct of the denominative verb II מָשַׁל (mashal, “to utter a proverb”) does not seem likely because of the following preposition (Hebrew בְּ [bÿ], rather than עַל [’al]).

[2:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Why will they say?”

[3:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “men.” The term is used generically here for “people” (so KJV, ASV, and many other English versions); cf. NIV “the Ninevites.”

[3:5]  ³⁰ sn The people of Nineveh believed in God…. Verse 5 provides a summary of the response in Nineveh; the people of all ranks believed and gave evidence of contrition by fasting and wearing sackcloth (2 Sam 12:16, 19-23; 1 Kgs 21:27-29; Neh 9:1-2). Then vv. 6-9 provide specific details, focusing on the king’s reaction. The Ninevites’ response parallels the response of the pagan sailors in 1:6 and 13-16.

[3:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “from the greatest of them to the least of them.”

[7:5]  ³² tn The seventh month apparently refers to the anniversary of the assassination of Gedaliah, governor of Judah (Jer 40:13-14; 41:1), in approximately 581 b.c.

[8:19]  ³³ sn The fasts of the fifth and seventh months, mentioned previously (7:5), are listed here along with the observances of the fourth and tenth months. The latter commemorated the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians on January 15, 588 b.c. (2 Kgs 25:1), and the former the breach of the city walls on or about July 18, 586 b.c. (Jer 39:2-5).