1It happened in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah in the fourth [day] of the ninth month, even in Chislev.
2Now [they of] Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to entreat the favor of Yahweh,
3[and] to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?
4Then came the word of Yahweh of Hosts to me, saying,
5Speak 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], even these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, even to me?
6When you eat, and when you drink, do not you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
7[Should you] not [hear] the words which Yahweh cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities of it round about her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?
