2
The town of Bethel had sent a delegation headed by Sarezer and Regem-Melech to pray for God's blessing
3
and to confer with the priests of the Temple of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, and also with the prophets. They posed this question: "Should we plan for a day of mourning and abstinence next August, the seventieth anniversary of Jerusalem's fall, as we have been doing all these years?"
4
God-of-the-Angel-Armies gave me this Message for them,
5
for all the people and for the priests: "When you held days of fasting every fifth and seventh month all these seventy years, were you doing it for me?
6
And when you held feasts, was that for me? Hardly. You're interested in religion, I'm interested in people.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.