2. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord
3. by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, ‘Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?’
4. Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me:
5. ‘Ask all the people of the land and the priests, “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?
6. And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?