Zechariah 7:3
And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the 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 to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the 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?
Men were sent to the house of God to pray and to put a question to the priests and the prophets, whether they should keep on weeping and separating themselves in the fifth month as they had done for so many years. The question was whether the appointed fasting and mourning should be continued. In answer the word of the Lord laid bare that their fasting and mourning in the fifth and seventh months through the seventy years had not been done unto God, and that their eating and drinking had been for themselves.
Instead they were pointed back to the words proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous. They were required to execute true judgment and to show mercy and compassion to every brother. They were required not to oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, nor the stranger, nor the poor, and to let none imagine evil against his brother in the heart.
The warning joined to the answer was not to refuse to listen, nor to pull away the shoulder, nor to stop the ears, nor to make the heart as adamant stone against the law and the words sent by the Spirit through the former prophets. Refusal would bring great wrath, prayer left unheard, the pleasant land laid desolate, and the people scattered with a whirlwind among nations they knew not.