The people inquire concerning fasting: they are admonished to fast from sin.

¹ And it happened, in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev.

² And Sharezer and Regemmelech, and the men who were with them, sent to the house of God, to entreat the face of the Lord,

³ to speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and to the prophets, saying: “Must there be weeping with me in the fifth month, and must I sanctify myself, as I have now done for many years?”¹

1. 7:3The fifth month: They fasted on the tenth day of the fifth month; because on that day the temple was burnt. Therefore they inquire whether they are to continue the fast, after the temple is rebuilt. See this query answered in the 19th verse of the following chapter.(Challoner)

⁴ And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:

⁵ Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: Although you may have fasted and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years, did you indeed keep a fast unto me?¹

1. 7:5The repetition of ‘ieiunium ieiunastis’ (literally, ‘did you fast a fast’) intensifies the meaning, as in ‘did you really keep a fast unto me?’ The word ‘numquid’ implies that the answer is ‘no.’ Notice that the verbs ‘ieiunaretis, et plangeretis’ are subjunctive, which in this context indicates that there was not sufficient fasting and weeping. But in the next verse, the verbs referring to eating and drinking are indicative, not subjunctive. They were good at eating and drinking, but not so good with the fasting and weeping.(Conte)

⁶ And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink only for yourselves?

⁷ Are not these the words that the Lord has spoken by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was still inhabited, so that it would prosper, itself and the cities around it, and those inhabitants towards the South and in the plains?

⁸ And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying:

⁹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge with true judgment, and act with mercy and compassion, each and every one with his brother.

¹⁰ And do not find fault with the widow, and the orphan, and the newcomer, and the poor. And let not a man consider evil in his heart towards his brother.

¹¹ But they were not willing to pay attention, and they turned aside their shoulder to depart, and they pressed upon their ears, so that they would not hear.

¹² And they set their heart like the hardest stone, so that they would not hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts has sent with his Spirit by the hand of the former prophets. And so a great indignation came from Lord of hosts.

¹³ And it happened, just as he had spoken, and they did not pay attention. So then, they shall cry out, and I will not heed, says the Lord of hosts.

¹⁴ And I dispersed them throughout all the kingdoms that they did not know. And the land was left desolate behind them, so that no one was passing through or returning. And they made the desirable land into a deserted place.