To speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying: Must I weep in the fifth month, or must I sanctify myself as I have now done for many years?

speak.

Deuteronomy 17:9-11 And thou shalt come to the priests of the Levitical race, and to the judge, that shall be at that time: and thou shalt ask of them, and they shall shew thee the truth of the judgment. . . .

Deuteronomy 33:10 Thy judgments, O Jacob, and thy law, O Israel: they shall put incense in thy wrath and holocaust upon thy altar.

Ezekiel 44:23,24 And they shall teach my people the difference between holy and profane, and shew them how to discern between clean and unclean. . . .

Hosea 4:6 My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me: and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

Haggai 2:11 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests the law, saying:

Malachi 2:7 For the lips of the priests shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts.

Should.

Zechariah 7:5 Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: When you fasted, and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years: did you keep a fast unto me?

Nehemiah 8:9-11 And Nehemiah (he is Athersatha) and Esdras the priest and scribe, and the Levites who interpreted to all the people, said: This is a holy day to the Lord our God: do not mourn, nor weep: for all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. . . .

Nehemiah 9:1-3 And in the four and twentieth day of the month the children of Israel came together with fasting and with sackcloth, and earth upon them. . . .

Ecclesiastes 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Isaiah 22:12,13 And the Lord, the God of hosts, in that day shall call to weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: . . .

Joel 2:17 Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord's ministers, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God?

Matthew 9:15 And Jesus said to them: Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.

James 4:8-10 Draw nigh to God: and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded. . . .

fifth.

Zechariah 8:19 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Juda, joy, and gladness, and great solemnities: only love ye truth and peace.

2 Kings 25:8,9 In the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, the same is the nineteenth year of the king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan, commander of the army, a servant of the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem. . . .

Jeremiah 52:12-14 And in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, the same is the nineteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan the general of the army, who stood before the king of Babylon in Jerusalem. . . .

separating.

Zechariah 12:12-14 And the land shall mourn: families and families apart: the families of the house of David apart, and their women apart: . . .

1 Corinthians 7:5 Defraud not one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer: and return together again, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency.