5 Say to all the land’s people and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and the seventh month for these past seventy years, did you fast for me?
6 When you ate and drank, weren’t you the ones eating and drinking?
7 Weren’t these the words that the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem was dwelling quietly along with the surrounding cities, and when the arid southern plain and the western foothills were inhabited?
8 The Lord’s word came to Zechariah:
9 The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims:Make just and faithful decisions; show kindness and compassion to each other!
10 Don’t oppress the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor; don’t plan evil against each other!
11 But they refused to pay attention. They turned a cold shoulder and stopped listening.