Ezra 8:21

Ezra proclaims a fast at the Ahava River to humble themselves and seek God's safe guidance. Before a dangerous journey, the people turn first to God in prayer.

Cross-references · 29

• 2 Chr 20:3Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
• Joel 1:14Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.
• 1 Sam 7:6They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against Yahweh.” Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.
• Isa 30:21and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”
• Jonah 3:5The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.
• Lev 16:29“It shall be a statute to you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no kind of work, the native-born, or the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you:
• Lev 23:29For whoever it is who shall not deny himself in that same day; shall be cut off from his people.
• Ps 107:2–8Let the redeemed by Yahweh say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary,
• Ps 143:8–10Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.
• Isa 42:16I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.
• Ps 5:8Lead me, Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face.
• Joel 2:12–18“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
• Prov 3:6In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
• Isa 58:3‘Why have we fasted,’ say they, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers.
• Mark 10:13–16They were bringing to him little children, that he should touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who were bringing them.
• Ezra 8:15I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava; and there we encamped three days: and I looked around at the people the priests, and found there were none of the sons of Levi.
• Jer 10:23Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
• Isa 49:10They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them. He will guide them by springs of water.
• Acts 2:39For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
• Jer 31:8–9Behold, 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.
• Jer 50:4–5“In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping, and will seek Yahweh their God.
• Judg 20:26Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.
• Isa 58:5Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?
• Lev 16:31It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.
• Ps 8:2From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
• Ezra 8:31Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by the way.
• Num 14:3Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?”
• Num 14:31But your little ones, that you said should be captured or killed, them I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.
• Isa 35:8A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.

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