⁷ And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;

³ And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek unto Jehovah; and he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

²¹ Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.

¹⁸ How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly;

¹⁶ gather the people, sanctify the assembly, assemble the old men, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

⁵ And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

²⁰ For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope

²¹ that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

²² For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.