Psalms 109:24

Strengthen the weak hands, and make the feeble knees firm.

in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;

By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.

Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.

In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion. Don’t let your hands be weak.”

For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.

The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water.

You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

His flesh is so consumed away that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.

They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.

Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it.

I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.

neither did we eat bread from anyone’s hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you,

He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

“ ‘When you offer an offering of a meal offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s Mountain.

“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.

Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like a stick.

She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.

Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.

John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”

who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men,

We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly; encourage the faint-hearted; support the weak; be patient toward all.

Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,

But Moses’ hands were heavy; so they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.

When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger.

As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.

I went out full, and Yahweh has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since Yahweh has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.

Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees.

I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.

For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

My soul is weary with sorrow: strengthen me according to your word.

Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.

“My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon. He is likely to die in the place where he is, because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.”

My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.

All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be weak as water.

Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

“When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.

Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”

Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.

He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.”

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’

Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But I came to this time for this cause.

When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.

Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often.

They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—

You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;

One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn.

So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.

Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread.”

When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.

“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”

You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

My soul is also in great anguish. But you, Yahweh—how long?

I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.

All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.

Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt.

When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.

Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.

Then he said to me, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel; for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I have come for your words’ sake.

When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.

“Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.

The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry.

and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fastings and petitions night and day.

Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour, I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,

in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.