The Question of Fasting

1And in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Kislev.

2Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and his men to entreat the favor of Yahweh,

3to say to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, abstaining as I have done for these many years?”

4Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying,

5Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?

6And when you eat and when you drink, is it not you who are eating, and you who are drinking?

7Are these not the words that Yahweh proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at ease, with her surrounding cities, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?