And when you would eat and when you would drink, were not you the ones doing the eating, and were not you the ones doing the drinking?

These abstinences from food were just like their indulging in food and drink. They were eating for themselves. Similarly, they were fasting for themselves, because of the calamities that had come upon them for their not obeying the words that their God had called out by Jeremiah and other former prophets.