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

Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?

And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?

Read full chapter

Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted(A) and mourned in the fifth and seventh(B) months for the past seventy years,(C) was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?(D) Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets(E) when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest(F) and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills(G) were settled?’”(H)

Read full chapter