Empty

“Fasting. Eating sparingly or abstaining from food altogether, either from necessity or desire. In medical terms, fasting is the detoxification of the body through the restriction of food. Spiritual fasting entails setting aside activities as well as reducing the intake of food and replacing these activities with the exercise of prayer and preoccupation with spiritual concerns. The NT word which is translated ‘fasting’ literally means one who has not eaten, one who is empty” (Clarence B. Bass, “Fast, Fasting,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988], 780).