Zechariah 7:1-7

New International Version

Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting

7 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah^(A) on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev.^{(B) 2} The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat^(C) the Lord^{(D) 3} by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn^(E) and fast in the fifth^(F) month, as I have done for so many years?”

⁴ Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: ⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted^(G) and mourned in the fifth and seventh^(H) months for the past seventy years,^(I) was it really for me that you fasted? ⁶ And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?^{(J) 7} Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets^(K) when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest^(L) and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills^(M) were settled?’”^(N)