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The Hypocrisy of False Fasting

In King Darius’ fourth year, on the fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month,[a] the Lord’s message came to Zechariah. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the Lord’s favor by asking both the priests of the temple[b] of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month,[c] fasting as we have done over the years?”

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Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 7:1 sn The fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month would be December 7, 518 b.c., 22 months after the previous eight visions.
  2. Zechariah 7:3 tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
  3. Zechariah 7:3 sn This lamentation marked the occasion of the destruction of Solomon’s temple on August 14, 586 b.c., almost exactly 70 years earlier (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8).

In the fourth year of king Darius, Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech, and their men, to entreat Yahweh’s favor, and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?”

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