And it came to pass, in the fourth year of King Darius,.... Near two years after the foundation of the temple was laid, Haggai 2:10 and near two years before it was finished, Ezra 6:15 when the work was going forward, and there was a great deal of reason to believe it would be completed:
[that] the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, in the fourth [day] of the ninth month, [even] in Chisleu: which answers to part of our October, and part of November.