But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
Parallel translations
- WEB But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face;
- KJV But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
- NKJV But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
- NASB But as for you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
- NLT But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
When you fast, groom yourself normally so it stays between you and God. Don't parade your devotion before others.
Overview
Rather than displaying signs of fasting, the disciple should wash and anoint as usual, keeping the practice hidden from public view. Jesus does not abolish fasting but purifies its motive, freeing it from the corruption of self-display. The instruction assumes fasting remains a healthy part of the disciple's life, undertaken as private, sincere seeking of God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ruth 3:3Therefore wash yourself, put on perfume, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
- Eccl 9:8Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.
- Dan 10:2–3In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks.
- 2 Sam 12:20Then David got up from the ground, washed and anointed himself, changed his clothes, and went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they set food before him, and he ate.
- 2 Sam 14:2So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.
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Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
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Original language
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