One fast only was appointed by the Mosaic law, that on the day of atonement. There is no mention
of any other periodical fast in the Old Testament except in (Zechariah 7:1-7; 8:19) From these•
passages it appears that the Jews, during their captivity, observed four annual fasts,—in the fourth,
fifth, seventh and tenth months.
•Public fasts were occasionally proclaimed to express national humiliation and to supplicate divine
favor. In the case of public danger the proclamation appears to have been accompanied with the
blowing of trumpets. (Joel 2:1-15) (See (1 Samuel 7:6; 2 Chronicles 20:3; Jeremiah 36:6-10))
Three days after the feast of tabernacles, when the second temple was completed, “the children
of Israel assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes and earth upon them,” to hear the law read
and to confess their sins. (Nehemiah 9:1)
•Private occasional fasts are recognized in one passage of the law— (Numbers 30:13) The instances
given of individuals fasting under the influence of grief, vexation or anxiety are numerous.
•In the New Testament the only reference to the Jewish fasts are the mention of “the fast” in (Acts
27:9) (generally understood to denote the day of atonement) an the allusions to the weekly fasts.
(Matthew 9:14; Mark 2:18; Luke 5:33; 18:12; Acts 10:30) These fasts originated some time after
the captivity.
•The Jewish fasts were observed with various degrees of strictness. Sometimes there was entire
abstinence from food. (Esther 4:16) etc. On other occasions there appears to have been only a
restriction to a very plain diet. (Daniel 10:3) Those who fasted frequently dressed in sackcloth or
rent their clothes, put ashes on their head and went barefoot. (1 Kings 21:27; Nehemiah 9:1; Psalms
35:13)
•The sacrifice of the personal will, which gives to fasting all its value, is expressed in the old term
used in the law, afflicting the soul.
Fat
i.e. VAT, the word employed in the Authorized Version to translate the Hebrew term yekeb,
in (Joel 2:24; 3:13) The word commonly used for yekeb is “winepress” or “winefat,” and once
“pressfat.” (Haggai 2:16) The “vats” appear to have been excavated out of the native rock of the
hills on which the vineyards lay.
The Hebrews distinguished between the suet or pure fat of an animal and the fat which was
intermixed with the lean. (Nehemiah 8:10) Certain restrictions were imposed upon them in reference
to the former; some parts of the suet, viz., about the stomach, the entrails, the kidneys, and the tail
of a sheep, which grows to an excessive size in many eastern countries, and produces a large quantity
of rich fat, were forbidden to be eaten in the case of animals offered to Jehovah in sacrifice. (Leviticus
3:3,9,17; 7:3,23) The ground of the prohibition was that the fat was the richest part of the animal,
and therefore belonged to him. (Leviticus 3:16) The burning of the fat of sacrifices was particularly
specified in each kind of offering.
Father
The position and authority of the father as the head of the family are expressly assumed and
sanctioned in Scripture, as a likeness of that of the Almighty over his creatures. It lies of course at
the root of that so-called patriarchal government, (Genesis 3:16; 1 Corinthians 11:3) which was
introductory to the more definite systems which followed, and which in part, but not wholly,
superseded it. The father’s blessing was regarded as conferring special benefit, but his malediction
special injury, on those on whom it fell, (Genesis 9:25,27; 27:27-40; 48:15,20; 49:1) ... and so also
the sin of a parent was held to affect, in certain cases, the welfare of his descendants. (2 Kings 5:27)