tsom · fast

What it means

tsom (צוֹם) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “fast”.

Going without food for a time, as a sign of mourning, of sorrow for sin, or of pleading with God.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. Not eating for a time, in grief or to plead with God.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• fast ×17
• fasting ×8
• fasts ×1

Where it appears

• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×2
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×1
• Esther×2
• Psalms×3
• Isaiah×4
• Jeremiah×2
• Daniel×1
• Joel×3
• Jonah×1
• Zechariah×4

• 2 Samuel 12:16

  David sought Elohim for the boy; David fasted a fast, and he went in and spent the night and lay on the ground.

• 1 Kings 21:9

  And she wrote in the letters, saying, “Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the people;

• 1 Kings 21:12

  They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people.

• 2 Chronicles 20:3

  Jehoshaphat was afraid, and set his face to seek YHWH, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

• Ezra 8:21

  And I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, to afflict ourselves before our Elohim, to seek from him a straight way for us and for our little ones and for all our goods.

• Nehemiah 9:1

  And on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel gathered with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth on them.

• Esther 4:3

  And in every province, in the place where the word of the king and his law reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting and weeping and lamenting; sackcloth and ashes were spread out for many.

• Esther 9:31

  to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had established for them, and as they had established for themselves and for their offspring: the matters of the fasts and of their crying out.

• Psalms 35:13

  But I, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I afflicted with fasting my soul, and my prayer to my bosom would return.

• Psalms 69:10

  And I wept in fasting of my soul, and it became reproaches to me.

• Psalms 109:24

  My knees give way from fasting, and my flesh has grown lean, without fat.

• Isaiah 58:3

  ‘Why have we fasted, and you did not see? Why have we humbled our soul, and you do not know?’ Look, on the day of your fast you find your desire, and you oppress all your workers.

• Isaiah 58:5

  Will the fast that I choose be like this: a day for a human being to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day of favor to YHWH?

• Isaiah 58:6

  Is this not the fast that I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, and to set free the crushed, and that you break every yoke?

• Jeremiah 36:6

  So you go and read from the scroll that you have written from my mouth the words of YHWH in the ears of the people in the house of YHWH on a day of fasting; and also in the ears of all Judah who come from their cities you shall read them.

• Jeremiah 36:9

  And it happened in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before YHWH for all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.

• Daniel 9:3

  And I set my face toward Adonai Elohim, to seek him by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

• Joel 1:14

  Consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of YHWH your Elohim, and cry out to YHWH.

• Joel 2:12

  Yet even now, declares YHWH, return to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamenting.

• Joel 2:15

  Blow the horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly.

• Jonah 3:5

  And the men of Nineveh believed Elohim, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

• Zechariah 8:19

  “Thus says YHWH Tsevaot: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will be for the house of Judah joy and gladness and good festivals; so love truth and peace.

And 4 more times.