Chapter VI.
On the law of fasting given by Moses, and on the fasting of the same. How the abstinence from wine made fruitful the barrenness of Samson's and Samuel's mothers; and with what foods Elisha nourished the sons of the prophets.
16. Finally, Moses gave the law about fasting, but not about wine. He himself, while fasting, was not terrified by loud noises, thunder and cloudy storms, or the smoking Mount Sinai. Indeed, he would not have entered the cloud and heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire without danger to his well-being, unless he had been fortified by the weapons of fasting. For he fasted for forty days on the mountain when he received the Law from the Lord our God. And in the higher parts of the mountain, the Law was given to Moses while fasting, but in the lower parts, the profane transgression was ignited by the luxurious feasting of the people who were eating. In which spectacle, Moses broke the tablets, judging it unworthy that the Law should be given to a drunken people. And so, the abstinence that he obtained caused the tablets of the Law to be broken by drunkenness.
17. But what else shall I say? Did not the abstinence from wine make the barrenness of Samson's mother fertile, and make her who was barren bring forth? For according to the commandment of the Lord, she did not drink wine. Did not the Lord hear Hannah, not partaking of food, and did fasting dissolve her barrenness? From these two, one was born strongest, the other most observant, they both proved themselves worthy, nourished for a long time in the womb of fasting, and seemed to be poured forth from the womb of abstinence. Similarly, Samson, who was conceived by his mother's sobriety, was avenged by the drunkenness of his adversaries.
18. Elisaeus the prophet, who had learned from his master the virtue of frugality, when he was feeding the sons of the prophets, loaded their tables with wild grapes and filled the duty of hospitality with tasteless forest herbs. When they were unable to eat because of the bitterness, he tempered all that bitterness with a sprinkling of fine flour, emptying the power of the poison with the gift of prophetic abstinence.