1. Zechariah received a message from the Lord in the fourth year that Darius was the king of Persia. This was on the fourth day of the ninth month (Kislev).
2. The people of Bethel sent Sharezer, Regem-Melech, and his men to ask the Lord a question.
3. They went to the prophets and to the priests at the Temple of the Lord All-Powerful. They asked them this question: “For many years we have shown our sadness for the destruction of the Temple. In the fifth month of each year, we have had a special time of crying and fasting. Should we continue to do this?”
4. I received this message from the Lord All-Powerful:
5. “Tell the priests and the other people in this country this: ‘For seventy years you fasted and showed your sadness in the fifth month and in the seventh month. But was that fasting really for me?
6. And when you ate and drank, was that for me? No, it was for your own good.
7. The Lord used the earlier prophets to say the same thing long ago. That was when Jerusalem was still a rich city filled with people and there were still people living in the surrounding towns, in the Negev, and in the western foothills.’”
8. This is the Lord’S message to Zechariah: