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The question of 7:3 is now answered in light of all that Zechariah has said about the past. Each of these occasions for mourning rituals is associated with the events of the fall of Jerusalem in 587/6 b.c. The city wall was breached in the fourth month (Jer 39:2), the temple destroyed during the fifth (2Ki 25:8). Gedaliah was murdered and the Babylonian siege began in the seventh and tenth months respectively (2Ki 25:25; 25:1-2). But because of what God was doing in Zechariah’s day, the time for mourning was over. These fast days, having been observed for nearly seventy years, were to be turned into occasions for joy and feasting.
The joy of the renewed covenant would not be restricted to the Jews (vv.20-23). The inhabitants of far-off cities would evangelize each other because of the news of Yahweh’s goodness to Jerusalem. Thus the covenant between Yahweh and the courageous citizens of the postexilic community had the potential to fulfill the promises to Abraham (Ge 12:3).