Fast. The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old Testament is in Zech. 7:1-7; 8:19, from which it appears that during their captivity the Jews observed four annual fasts. (1.) The fast of the fourth month, kept on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, the anniversary of the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; to commemorate also the incident recorded Ex. 32:19. (Comp. Jer. 52:6, 7.) (2.) The fast of the fifth month, kept on the ninth of Ab (comp.…

Abstinence. abs'-ti-nens: Abstinence as a form of asceticism reaches back into remote antiquity, and is found among most ancient peoples. It may be defined as a self-discipline which consists in the habitual renunciation, in whole or in part, of the enjoyments of the flesh, with a view to the cultivation of the life of the spirit. In its most extreme forms, it bids men to stifle and suppress their physical wants, rather than to subordinate them in the interest of a higher end or purpose, the underlying idea being that the body is the foe of the spirit, and that the progressive extirpation of t…

和合本：1 你要大聲喊叫，不可止息； 揚起聲來，好像吹角。 向我百姓說明他們的過犯； 向雅各家說明他們的罪惡。 2 他們天天尋求我， 樂意明白我的道， 好像行義的國民， 不離棄他們上帝的典章， 向我求問公義的判語， 喜悅親近上帝。 3 他們說：我們禁食，你為何不看見呢？ 我們刻苦己心，你為何不理會呢？ 看哪，你們禁食的日子仍求利益， 勒逼人為你們做苦工。 4 你們禁食，卻互相爭競， 以凶惡的拳頭打人。 你們今日禁食， 不得使你們的聲音聽聞於上。 5 這樣禁食豈是我所揀選、 使人刻苦己心的日子嗎？ 豈是叫人垂頭像葦子， 用麻布和爐灰鋪在他以下嗎？ 你這可稱為禁食、為耶和華所悅納的日子嗎？ 6 我所揀選的禁食不是要鬆開凶惡的繩， 解下軛上的索， 使被欺壓的得自由， 折斷一切的軛嗎？ 7 不是要把你的餅分給飢餓的人， 將飄流的窮人接到你家中， 見赤身的給他[衣服]遮體， 顧恤自己的骨肉而不掩藏嗎？ BSB: 1 “Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek Me and delight t…

This pressing monition produced its result. Esther returned answer to Mordochai: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are found in Susa, and fast ye for me: I also and my maidens will fast; and so will I go to the king against the law; and if I perish, I perish." Esther resolves to go to the king unsummoned, but begs Mordochai and all the Jews to unite in a three days' fast, during which she and her maidens will also fast, to seek by earnest humiliation God's gracious assistance in the step she proposes to take, for the purpose of averting the threatened destruction of her people. "Though 'G…

4:16 fast for me: Esther was convinced, but she wanted as many Jews as possible to pray that God would intervene to save her life. • Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day: A total fast without any food or water often lasted only one day (Lev 16:29-31; Judg 20:26). The three-day length was consistent with the seriousness of the situation and the absolute need for God’s intervention. • though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king: In spite of the danger, she determined that she must act for the sake of her people. • If I must die, I must die: She, like Mordecai, was a pe…

Fat. (chelebh, chelebh): The layer of subcutaneous fat and the compact suet surrounding the viscera and imbedded in the entrails, which, like the blood, was forbidden as food in the Mosaic code (Le 3:17). It was to be sacrificed to God by being burnt upon the altar (Le 3:16; 30). This had to be done on the very day on which a beast had been slaughtered, to remove temptation from the Israelite to use it otherwise (Ex 23:18). The law was probably a sanitary restriction, for, at an early date, leprosy, scrofula and disfiguring cutaneous diseases were thought to be caused by the use of fat as food…

Make . . . fat-- (Psa 119:17). "Render them the more hardened by thy warnings" [MAURER]. This effect is the fruit, not of the truth in itself, but of the corrupt state of their hearts, to which God here judicially gives them over (Isa 63:17). GESENIUS takes the imperatives as futures. "Proclaim truths, the result of which proclamation will be their becoming the more hardened" (Rom 1:28; Eph 4:18); but this does not so well as the former set forth God as designedly giving up sinners to judicial hardening (Rom 11:8; Th2 2:11). In the first member of the sentence, the order is, the heart, ears, e…

和合本：16 「你們禁食的時候，不可像那假冒為善的人，臉上帶着愁容；因為他們把臉弄得難看，故意叫人看出他們是禁食。我實在告訴你們，他們已經得了他們的賞賜。 17 你禁食的時候，要梳頭洗臉， 18 不叫人看出你禁食來，只叫你暗中的父看見；你父在暗中察看，必然報答你。」 19 「不要為自己積攢財寶在地上；地上有蟲子咬，能銹壞，也有賊挖窟窿來偷。 20 只要積攢財寶在天上；天上沒有蟲子咬，不能銹壞，也沒有賊挖窟窿來偷。 21 因為你的財寶在哪裏，你的心也在那裏。」 22 「眼睛就是身上的燈。你的眼睛若瞭亮，全身就光明； 23 你的眼睛若昏花，全身就黑暗。你裏頭的光若黑暗了，那黑暗是何等大呢！」 BSB: 16 When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to yo…

For if ye forgive men, &c.--See on Mat 6:12. But if ye forgive not, &c.--See on Mat 6:12. Fasting (Mat 6:16-18). Having concluded His supplementary directions on the subject of prayer with this Divine Pattern, our Lord now returns to the subject of Unostentatiousness in our deeds of righteousness, in order to give one more illustration of it, in the matter of fasting. Moreover, when ye fast--referring, probably, to private and voluntary fasting, which was to be regulated by each individual for himself; though in spirit it would apply to any fast. be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenanc…

fat--or, by differently pointing the Hebrew, "milk" [Septuagint]. Thus the repetition "fat" and "fed" is avoided: also the eating of "fat" would not probably be put before the "killing" of the sheep. The eating of sheep's or goats' milk as food (Deu 32:14; Pro 27:27) was unobjectionable, had not these shepherds milked them too often, and that without duly "feeding" them [BOCHART], (Isa 56:11). The rulers levied exorbitant tributes. kill . . . fed--kill the rich by false accusation so as to get possession of their property. feed not . . . flock--take no care of the people (Joh 10:12). The dis…