Strict Fast (Xerophagy)
Old Testament Reading
Isaiah 13:2-13
² Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. ³ I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones. ⁴ The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle. ⁵ They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. ⁶ Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. ⁷ Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt. ⁸ They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame. ⁹ Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it. ¹⁰ For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. ¹¹ I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible. ¹² I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir. ¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Genesis 8:4-21
⁴ The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains. ⁵ The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible. ⁶ At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made, ⁷ and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. ⁸ He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground, ⁹ but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned into the ship to him, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. ¹⁰ He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship. ¹¹ The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth. ¹² He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him anymore. ¹³ In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. ¹⁵ God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹ Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship. ²⁰ Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.
Proverbs 10:31-11:12
³¹ The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. ³² The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked is perverse. ¹ A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh, but accurate weights are his delight. ² When pride comes, then comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom. ³ The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them. ⁴ Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. ⁵ The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. ⁶ The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but the unfaithful will be trapped by evil desires. ⁷ When a wicked man dies, hope perishes, and expectation of power comes to nothing. ⁸ A righteous person is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked takes his place. ⁹ With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor, but the righteous will be delivered through knowledge. ¹⁰ When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there is shouting. ¹¹ By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. ¹² One who despises his neighbor is void of wisdom, but a man of understanding holds his peace.