Zechariah 7:3

7:3 by asking both the priests of the temple ¹  of the Lord who rules over all and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, ²  fasting as we have done over the years?”

Zechariah 7:5

7:5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ³  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?

Zechariah 8:19

8:19 “The Lord who rules over all says, ‘The fast of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth ⁴  months will become joyful and happy, pleasant feasts for the house of Judah, so love truth and peace.’

¹ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

² sn This lamentation marked the occasion of the destruction of Solomon’s temple on August 14, 586 b.c., almost exactly 70 years earlier (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8).

³ tn The seventh month apparently refers to the anniversary of the assassination of Gedaliah, governor of Judah (Jer 40:13-14; 41:1), in approximately 581 b.c.

⁵ sn The fasts of the fifth and seventh months, mentioned previously (7:5), are listed here along with the observances of the fourth and tenth months. The latter commemorated the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians on January 15, 588 b.c. (2 Kgs 25:1), and the former the breach of the city walls on or about July 18, 586 b.c. (Jer 39:2-5).