1. In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.
2. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to plead for the Lord’s favor
3. by asking the priests who were at the house of the Lord of Hosts as well as the prophets, “Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years? ”
4. Then the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me:
5. “Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me?
6. When you eat and drink, don’t you eat and drink simply for yourselves?
7. Aren’t these the words that the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure, along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were inhabited? ”
8. The word of the Lord came to Zechariah:
9. “The Lord of Hosts says this: Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another.
10. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.