3 saying to the priests and prophets of the house of the Lord of Hosts, “Should I weep and dedicate myself during the fifth month as I have done in these many years?”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 Say to all the people in the land and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented during the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for Me?
6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?
7 Were these not the very words that the former prophets proclaimed when Jerusalem dwelled with ease along with her surrounding cities, and when the Negev and the Lowland were inhabited?
8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying:
9 Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion, every man to his brother.