Zechariah 7:1-7

In the fourth year of Emperor Darius, on the seventh of December, YAHWEH spoke again to Zechariah. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech with a delegation to Jerusalem to pray for the favor of YAHWEH. So they went to the prophets and priests who were at the Temple of YAHWEH and asked them: “For many years, each July we have mourned and fasted. Should we continue to do this?” Then YAHWEH spoke this message to me: “Ask all the priests and the people of the land: ‘For nearly seventy years, you have been fasting and mourning in the fifth and seventh months. Have you truly been doing this to honor me? And when you ate and drank, were you not doing it for your own pleasure? Did not YAHWEH speak these things to you through the prophets in the past? Have you forgotten what he told you when Jerusalem and the surrounding towns were prosperous and secure and when the southland and western foothills were inhabited?’ ”