1. AND IN the fourth year of the reign of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev.
2. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to pray and entreat the favor of the Lord
3. And to speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and to the prophets, saying, [Now that I am returned from exile] should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done these so many years [in Babylon]?
4. Then came the word of the Lord of hosts to me [Zechariah], saying,
5. Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, even those seventy years you were in exile, was it for Me that you fasted, for Me?
6. And when you ate and when you drank, did you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?
7. Should you not hear the words which the Lord cried by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity with her cities round about her, and the South (the Negeb) and the lowlands were inhabited?
8. And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,
9. Thus has the Lord of hosts spoken: Execute true judgment and show mercy and kindness and tender compassion, every man to his brother;