7 On the 4th of the ninth month (named ‘Kislev’) in the fourth year of the reign of Persian King Dareyavesh (Darius), Yahweh’s message came to Zekaryah (Zechariah).

2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharetser and Regem-Melek and their men to request prayers for Yahweh’s favour. 3 They asked the priests who were at army commander Yahweh’s temple, along with the prophets, “Should I fast in the fifth month to show that I’m mourning, as I’ve been doing for many years?”

4 So army commander Yahweh’s message came to me: 5 “Ask the priests and the people all over the country, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, were you truly fasting for me? 6 When you ate and drank together, weren’t you yourselves just enjoying the food and drink? 7 Weren’t those the same words that Yahweh proclaimed through the former prophets, when you still inhabited Yerushalem and the surrounding cities in prosperity and were settled in the Negev, and the western foothills?’ ”