1 Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev,
2 when the people sent Sherezer, with Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God, to pray before the Lord,
3 and to ask the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and 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 the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,
5 “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me?
6 When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?