A Question about Going without Eating

¹On the fourth day of Chislev, the ninth month of the fourth year that Darius was king of Persia, the Lord again spoke to me.[#7.1 Chislev, the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-November to mid-December; the fourth year of the rule of Darius was 518 b.c.]

^2-3It happened after the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer with Regem-Melech and his men to ask the priests in the Lord 's temple and the prophets to pray for them. So they prayed, “Should we mourn and go without eating during the fifth month, as we have done for many years?”[#7.2,3 Ab, the fifth month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-July to mid-August. The temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in the year 587 or 586 b.c.]

^4-5It was then that the Lord All-Powerful told me to say to everyone in the country, including the priests: