1. And in the fourth year of Sovereign Dareyawesh it came to be that the word of יהוה came to Zeḵaryah, on the fourth of the ninth month, Kislĕw.
2. Now Bĕyth Ěl had sent Shar’etser, with Reg̅em-Meleḵ and his men, to pray before יהוה,
3. speaking to the priests who belonged to the House of יהוה of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?”
4. Then the word of יהוה of hosts came to me, saying,
5. “Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months all these seventy years, did you truly fast for Me – for Me?
6. ‘And when you ate and when you drank, was it not for those eating and for those drinking?
7. ‘Are these not the words which יהוה proclaimed through the former prophets when Yerushalayim and the cities around it were inhabited and in safety, and the South and the low country were inhabited?’ ”
8. And the word of יהוה came to Zeḵaryah, saying,