And to speak unto the Priests, which were in the House of the Lord of hosts, and to the Prophets, saying, Should I [a]weep in the fifth month, and [b]separate myself as I have done these so many [c]years?

Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,

Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the [d]Priests, and say, When ye fasted, and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even the seventy years, did ye fast unto me? [e]do I approve it?

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Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 7:3 By weeping and mourning, appear what exercises they used in their fasting.
  2. Zechariah 7:3 That is, prepare myself with all devotion to his fast.
  3. Zechariah 7:3 Which was now since the time the Temple was destroyed.
  4. Zechariah 7:5 For there were both of the people, and of the Priests, which doubted as touching this controversy, besides them which as yet remained in Chaldea, and reason of it, as of one of the chief points of their religion.
  5. Zechariah 7:5 For they thought they had deserved toward God because of this fast, which they invented of themselves: and though fasting of itself be good, yet because they thought it a service toward God, and trusted therein, it is here reproved.

by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn(A) and fast in the fifth(B) month, as I have done for so many years?”

Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted(C) and mourned in the fifth and seventh(D) months for the past seventy years,(E) was it really for me that you fasted?

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