Zechariah 7:1-7 ▼

1 It happened in the fourth year of king Darayavush that the word of the LORD came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.

2 The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech, and their men, to entreat the LORD's favor,

3 and to speak to the priests of 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?|

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

5 |Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?

6 When you eat, and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 Aren't these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities around her, and the Negev and the lowland were inhabited?'|