⁴ And the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, ⁵ “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me? ⁶ And when you eat and drink, are you not eating and drinking for yourselves? ⁷ Are not these the words that Yahweh proclaimed through^[a] the former prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns^[b] were inhabited and at ease, and the Negev^[c] and the Shephelah^[d] were inhabited?’”