1. And it happened, in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev.
2. And Sharezer and Regemmelech, and the men who were with them, sent to the house of God, to entreat the face of the Lord,
3. to speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and to the prophets, saying: "Must there be weeping with me in the fifth month, and must I sanctify myself, as I have now done for many years?"
4. And 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: Although you may have fasted and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years, did you indeed keep a fast unto me?
6. And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink only for yourselves?
7. Are not these the words that the Lord has spoken by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was still inhabited, so that it would prosper, itself and the cities around it, and those inhabitants towards the South and in the plains?
8. And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying: