Zechariah 7
1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.
And it came about in the fourth year of King Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month Chislev.
2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to plead before the LORD
Now they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech to make a request for grace from the Lord,
3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”
And to say to the priests of the house of the Lord of armies and to the prophets, Am I to go on weeping in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done in past years?
4 Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying,
Then the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying
5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, When you went without food and gave yourselves to grief in the fifth and the seventh months for these seventy years, did you ever do it because of me?
6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?
And when you are feasting and drinking, are you not doing it only for yourselves?
7 Are these not the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’”
Are not these the words which the Lord said to you by the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was full of people and wealth, and the towns round about her and the South and the Lowland were peopled?
8 Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,
And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,
9 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another.
This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy and pity for his brother:
10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother.
11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing;
12 They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.
And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so that they might not give ear to the law and the words which the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there came great wrath from the Lord of armies.
13 And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
And it came about that as they would not give ear to his voice, so I would not give ear to their voice, says the Lord of armies:
14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”
But with a storm-wind I sent them in flight among all the nations of whom they had no knowledge. So the land was waste after them, so that no man went through or came back: for they had made waste the desired land.
