⁵ “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you ^(A)fasted and mourned in the fifth ^(B)and seventh months ^(C)during those seventy years, did you really fast ^(D)for Me—for Me?

The Lord Will Comfort Zion

¹² Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, ^(A)how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry ^(B)these seventy years?”

³ and to ^(A)ask the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in ^(B)the fifth month and ^[a]fast as I have done for so many years?”

^23 (A)And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,

¹⁵ and He died for all, ^(A)that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

^31 (A)Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

^17 (A)for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and ^(B)peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ For he who serves Christ in ^[a]these things ^(C)is acceptable to God and approved by men.

⁶ He who ^(A)observes the day, observes it to the Lord; ^[a]and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for ^(B)he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. ⁷ For ^(C)none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. ⁸ For if we ^(D)live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For ^(E)to this end Christ died ^[b]and rose and lived again, that He might be ^(F)Lord of both the dead and the living.