Obedience Better than Fasting

1And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu;

2When they had sent to the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the Lord,

3And to speak to the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?   Jehovah^s.f. Tsebaoth; abstaining

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

5Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When you^p fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did you^p at all fast to Me, even to Me?

6And when you^p did eat, and when you^p did drink, did not you^p eat for yourselves^p, and drink for yourselves^p?

7Should you^p not hear the words which the Lord has cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?