Isaiah 58:3

58:3 They lament, ¹  ‘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, ² 

you oppress your workers. ³ 

Joel 2:12

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, ⁴ 

not just your garments!”

Zechariah 7:3-6

7:3 by asking both the priests of the temple ⁵  of the Lord who rules over all and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, ⁶  fasting as we have done over the years?” 7:4 The word of the Lord who rules over all then came to me, 7:5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ⁷  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?’”

James 4:9

4:9 Grieve, mourn, ⁸  and weep. Turn your laughter ⁹  into mourning and your joy into despair.

¹ tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

² tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

³ tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

⁴ sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

⁵ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

⁶ sn This lamentation marked the occasion of the destruction of Solomon’s temple on August 14, 586 b.c., almost exactly 70 years earlier (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8).

⁷ 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 tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

⁹ tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”