Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh [month], even these seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, even to me?
Then the agent of LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long will thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou have had indignation these seventy years?
[and] to speak to the priests of the house of LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?
And when ye fast, become not like the gloomy looking hypocrites, for they make their faces unsightly, so that they may appear fasting to men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.
And when thou pray, thou shall not be as the hypocrites, because they love to pray having stood in the synagogues and in the corners of the thoroughfares, so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.
When therefore thou do charity, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.
Thus says LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth [month], and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah, joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth
Now when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah
Thou have not brought me from thy sheep for burnt-offerings, nor have thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not burdened thee with offerings, nor wearied thee with frankincense.
Why have we fasted, [they say], and thou see not? We have afflicted our soul, and thou take no knowledge. Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact from all your laborers.
For thus says LORD, After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place.
Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years of which the word of LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.
But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, so that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him