2
Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the Lord,
3
and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, "Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"
4
Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me:
5
Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?
6
And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?