1. In King Darius’ fourth year, on the fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah.
2. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the Lord’s favor
3. by asking both the priests of the temple of the Lord who rules over all and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, fasting as we have done over the years?”
4. The word of the Lord who rules over all then came to me,
5. “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?
6. And now when you eat and drink, are you not doing so for yourselves?’”
7. Should you not have obeyed the words that the Lord cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah were also populated?
8. Again the word of the Lord came to Zechariah:
9. “The Lord who rules over all said, ‘Exercise true judgment and show brotherhood and compassion to each other.