(1.) The fast of the fourth month. — Kept on the 17th of Tanimuz, to commemorate the making of the golden calf by the Jews, the breaking of the tables of the law by Moses (Exod. xxiv; comp. xxxiii, 3), the failure of the daily sacrifice for want of cattle during the siege, and the storming of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. lii),
(2.) The fast of tlic fifth month. — Kept on the 9th of Ab, to commemorate the decree that those who had left Egypt should not enter Canaan (Num. xiv, 27, etc.) ; the Temple burnt by Nebuchadnezzar, and again by Titus; and the ploughing up of the site of the Temple, with the capture of Bether, in which a vast number of Jews from Jerusalem had taken refuge in the time of Hadrian (comp. Jest, 6'escA. d. Israeliten, iii, 240).
(3.) The fast of the seventh month. — Commemora- ting the complete sack of Jerusalem bj' Nebuchadnez- zar, and the death of Gedaliah (2 Kings xxv), on the 3d of Tisri (comp. Seder Olam Jiabba, c. xxvi).
(4.) The fast of the tenth month.— On the 10th of Tebeth, to commemorate the receiving bj' Ezekiel and the other captives in Babylon of the news of the de- struction of Jerusalem (Ezek. xxxiii, 21 ; compare 2 Kings xxv, 1).
These four fasts have been Christianized, and tra- dition tells us that their transfer into the Christian Church was made hy the Roman bishop Callistus (fiour. A.D. 223). To deprive them, however, of their Jewish appearance, the whole .year was divided into four seasons (quatuor temporn), and a fast was ap- pointed for one week of each season (compare Herzog, EncyMopddie, iii, 336).
(5.) The fast of Esther. — Additional to the above ; kept on the 13th of Adar (Esth. iv, 16). See Esther (Fast of)-
Some other events mentioned in the IMishna are omitted as unimportant. Of those here stated several could liavo liad nothing to do with the fasts in the time of the prophet. It would seem most probable, from tlie mode in which he has grouped them together, that tlie original purpose of all four was to commemo- rate the circumstances connected with the commence- ment of the captivity, and that the other events were sul)sequently associated with them on the ground of some real or fancied coincidence of the time of occur- rence. As regards the fast of the fiftli month, at least, it can hardly be doul)ted that the captive Jews applied it exclusively to the destruction of the Temple, and tliat St. Jerome was right in regarding as the reason of their request to be released from its observance the fact that it had no longer any purpose after the new TenijJo was begun. As this fast (as well a's the three Others) is still retained in the Jewish calendar, we must
infer either that the priests did not agree with the Babylonian Jews, or that the fast, having been discon- tinued for a time, was renewed after the destruction of the Temple by Titus.
The number of annual fasts in the present Jewish calendar has been multiplied to twent^'-eight, a list of which is given bj' Reland (Antiq. p. 274). See Cal-
END.VR.
2. Public fasts were occasionally proclaimed to ex- press national humiliation on account of sin or misfor- tune, and to supplicate divine favor in regard to some great undertaking or threatened danger. In the case of public danger, the proclamation appears to have
j been accompanied with the blowing of trumpets (Joel ii, 1-15 ; comp. Taanifh, i, 6). The following instances are recorded of strictly national fasts : Samuel gath- I ered "all Israel'' to Mizpeh and proclaimed a fast, per- forming at the same time what seems to have been a rite sj'mbolical of purification, when the people con- fessed their sin in having worshipped Baalim and Ash- taroth (1 Sam. vii, 6) ; Jehoshaphat appointed one "throughout all Judah" when he was pi'eparing for war against Moab and Amnion (2 Chron. xx, .S) ; in the reign of Jehoiakim, one was proclaimed for "all the people in Jerusalem, and all who came thither out of the cities of Judah," when the prophecy of Jeremiah was public!}' read by Baruch (Jer. xxxvi, 6-10 ; comp. I Baruch i, 5) ; three da3S after the feast of Tabernacles, j 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 (Neh. ix, 1). There are references to general fasts in the prophets (Joel i, 14 ; ii, 15 ; Isa. Iviii), and two are noticed in the books of the Macca- bees (1 Mace, iii, 46-47 ; 2 Mace, xiii, 10-12).
There are a considerable number of instances of cit- ies and bodies of men observing fasts on occasions in whicii they were especially concerned. In the days of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, wlien the men of Ju- dah had been defeated hy those of Benjamin, the}- fast- ed in making preparation for another battle (Judg. xx, 26). David and his men fasted for a daj' on account of the death of Saul (2 Sam. i, 12), and the men of Ja- besh Gilead fasted seven days on Saul's burial (1 Sam. ! xxxi, 13). Jezebel, in the name of Ahab, appointed a ; thst for the inhabitants of Jezreel, to render more strik- ing, as it would seem, the punishment about to be in- flicted on Naboth (1 Kings xxi, 9-12). Ezra proclaim- ed a fast for his companions at the river of Ahava, when he was seeking for God's help and guidance in the work he was about to undettake (Ezra viii, 21-23). Esther, when she was going to intercede with Ahasu- erus, commanded the Jews of Shushan neither to eat nor drink for three days (Esth. iv, 16). A fast of great strictness is recorded in the Scriptures as having been proclaimed I13' the heathen king of Nineveh to avert tlie destruction threatened bj' Jehovah (Jonah ii, 5 -9).