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 ¹  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?

Nehemiah 8:9-11

8:9 Then Nehemiah the governor, ²  Ezra the priestly scribe, ³  and the Levites who were imparting understanding to the people said to all of them, ⁴  “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping when they heard the words of the law. 8:10 He said to them, “Go and eat delicacies and drink sweet drinks and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. ⁵  Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

8:11 Then the Levites quieted all the people saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy. Do not grieve.”

Nehemiah 9:1-3

The People Acknowledge Their Sin before God

9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust. 9:2 Those truly of Israelite descent ⁶  separated from all the foreigners, ⁷  standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. ⁸  9:3 For one-fourth of the day they stood in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God, and for another fourth they were confessing their sins ⁹  and worshiping the LORD their God.

Ecclesiastes 3:4

3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Isaiah 22:12-13

22:12 At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning,

for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹⁰ 

22:13 But look, there is outright celebration! ¹¹ 

You say, “Kill the ox and slaughter the sheep,

eat meat and drink wine.

Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” ¹² 

Joel 2:17

2:17 Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep

from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ¹³ 

Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people;

please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,

to become a proverb ¹⁴  among the nations.

Why should it be said ¹⁵  among the peoples,

“Where is their God?”

Matthew 9:15

9:15 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests ¹⁶  cannot mourn while the bridegroom ¹⁷  is with them, can they? But the days ¹⁸  are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, ¹⁹  and then they will fast.

James 4:8-10

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. ²⁰  4:9 Grieve, mourn, ²¹  and weep. Turn your laughter ²²  into mourning and your joy into despair. 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

[7:5]  ¹ 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.

[8:9]  ² tc The unexpected reference to Nehemiah here has led some scholars to suspect that the phrase “Nehemiah the governor” is a later addition to the text and not original.

[8:9]  ³ tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.”

[8:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “the people.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.

[8:10]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the seed of Israel.”

[9:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “sons of a foreigner.”

[9:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 9, 16, 23, 32, 34, 36).

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “confessing.” The words “their sins” are not present in the Hebrew text of v. 3, but are clearly implied here because they are explicitly stated in v. 2.

[22:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[22:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “happiness and joy.”

[22:13]  ¹² tn The prophet here quotes what the fatalistic people are saying. The introductory “you say” is supplied in the translation for clarification; the concluding verb “we die” makes it clear the people are speaking. The six verbs translated as imperatives are actually infinitives absolute, functioning here as finite verbs.

[2:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “between the vestibule and the altar.” The vestibule was located at the entrance of the temple and the altar was located at the other end of the building. So “between the vestibule and the altar” is a merism referring to the entire structure. The priestly lament permeates the entire house of worship.

[2:17]  ¹⁴ tn For the MT reading לִמְשָׁל (limshol, an infinitive, “to rule”), one should instead read לְמָשָׁל (lÿmashal, a noun, “to a byword”). While the consonantal Hebrew text permits either, the context suggests that the concern here is more one of not wanting to appear abandoned by God to ongoing economic depression rather than one of concern over potential political subjection of Israel (cf. v. 19). The possibility that the form in the MT is an infinitive construct of the denominative verb II מָשַׁל (mashal, “to utter a proverb”) does not seem likely because of the following preposition (Hebrew בְּ [bÿ], rather than עַל [’al]).

[2:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Why will they say?”

[9:15]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to wedding guests, or more specifically friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).

[9:15]  ¹⁷ sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).

[9:15]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “days.”

[9:15]  ¹⁹ sn The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 16:13ff.

[4:8]  ²⁰ tn Or “two-minded” (the same description used in 1:8).

[4:9]  ²¹ tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[4:9]  ²² tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”