1. In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.
2. Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the Lord,
3. speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?"
4. Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,
5. "Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?
6. When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?
7. Are not these the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?'"