by asking the priests who were at the house of the Lord of Hosts as well as the prophets, “Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?”

"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?

When ye fasted with mourning in the fifth and in the seventh months -- even these seventy years -- did ye keep the fast to Me -- Me? And when ye eat, and when ye drink, is it not ye who are eating, and ye who are drinking?

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'The fast of the fourth [month], the fifth [month], the seventh [month], and the tenth [month] will be for the house of Judah jubilation and joy and merry festivals; therefore love truth and peace.'