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The date in v.1 may be tabulated as December 7, 518 b.c. The source of the question on fasting is much disputed. The NIV of v.2 pictures the inhabitants of Bethel (twelve miles north of Jerusalem) sending Sharezer and Regem-Melech to Jerusalem to inquire about fasting. But many modern commentators read “Bethel-Sharezer sent Regem-Melech and his men,” which is another possible rendering of the Hebrew text (Baldwin, 142; Thomas, 1082). The Babylonian form of the name Bethel-Sharezer has been attested for this period. If this is true, then the problem concerning fasting originated among prominent Jews in Babylonia who sent to Jerusalem to receive an answer. This accords well with the four-month gap between Zechariah’s answer in the ninth month (v.1) and the mourning ritual itself in the fifth month (v.3), since the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem took precisely four months (Ezr 7:8-9). This would also remove the need for the NIV’s addition of “the people of” (v.2) which is not in the original text. This view is not, however, without recent critics (Meyers and Meyers, 379-83).
The temple had been destroyed on the seventh day of the fifth month (2Ki 25:8-9). For nearly seventy years this day had been commemorated as a solemn fast day. But now that the temple was almost rebuilt, the question arises whether it was appropriate for devout Jews to continue this mourning ritual. Although the priests made pronouncements on matters of ritual, it was the prophets who provided the divine mandate for religious innovations. Thus the rest of this unit preserves Zechariah’s teachings on the topic of fasting.