Nehemiah 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.

Esther 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 ¹  will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. ²  If I perish, I perish!”

Daniel 9:3

9:3 So I turned my attention ³  to the Lord God ⁴  to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ⁵ 

Luke 2:37

2:37 She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. ⁶  She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. ⁷ 

Acts 10:30

10:30 Cornelius ⁸  replied, ⁹  “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock in the afternoon, ¹⁰  I was praying in my house, and suddenly ¹¹  a man in shining clothing stood before me

¹ tn Heb “I and my female attendants.” The translation reverses the order for stylistic reasons.

² tn Heb “which is not according to the law” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “contrary to the law.”

³ tn Heb “face.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase translated “Lord God” here is אֲדֹנָי הָאֱלֹהִים (’adonay ha’elohim).

⁵ sn When lamenting, ancient Israelites would fast, wear sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads to show their sorrow and contrition.

⁶ tn Grk “living with her husband for seven years from her virginity and she was a widow for eighty four years.” The chronology of the eighty-four years is unclear, since the final phrase could mean “she was widowed until the age of eighty-four” (so BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.α). However, the more natural way to take the syntax is as a reference to the length of her widowhood, the subject of the clause, in which case Anna was about 105 years old (so D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 1:251-52; I. H. Marshall, Luke, [NIGTC], 123-24).

⁷ sn The statements about Anna worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day make her extreme piety clear.

⁸ tn Grk “And Cornelius.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

⁹ tn Grk “said.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “at the ninth hour.” Again, this is the hour of afternoon prayer.

¹¹ tn Grk “and behold.” The interjection ἰδού (idou) is difficult at times to translate into English. Here it has been translated as “suddenly” to convey the force of Cornelius’ account of the angel’s appearance.