< 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 cometh to pass, in the fourth year of Darius the king hath a word of Jehovah been unto Zechariah, in the fourth of the ninth month, in Chisleu.
2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to plead before the LORD
And Beth-El sendeth Sherezer and Regem-Melech, and its men, to appease the face of Jehovah,
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?”
speaking unto the priests who [are] at the house of Jehovah of Hosts, and unto the prophets, saying, 'Do I weep in the fifth month — being separated — as I have done these so many years?'
4 Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying,
And there is a word of Jehovah of Hosts unto 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?
'Speak unto all the people of the land, and unto the priests, saying:
6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?
When ye fasted with mourning in the fifth and in the seventh [months] — even these seventy years — did ye keep the fast [to] Me — Me? And when ye eat, and when ye drink, is it not ye who are eating, and ye who are drinking?
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 that Jehovah proclaimed by the hand of the former prophets, in Jerusalem's being inhabited, and [in] safety, and its cities round about it, and the south and the plain — abiding?'
8 Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,
And there is a word of Jehovah unto Zechariah, saying:
9 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another.
'Thus spake Jehovah of Hosts, saying: True judgment judge ye, And kindness and mercy do one with another.
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.’
And widow, and fatherless, Sojourner, and poor, ye do not oppress, And the calamity of one another ye do not devise in your heart.
11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
And they refuse to attend, And they give a refractory shoulder, And their ears have made heavy against 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 their heart they have made adamant, Against hearing the law, and the words, That Jehovah of Hosts sent by His Spirit, By the hand of the former prophets, And their is great wrath from Jehovah of Hosts.
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 cometh to pass, as He called, And they have not hearkened, So do they call, and I do not hearken, Said Jehovah of Hosts.
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.”
And I toss them on all the nations, That they have not known, The land hath been desolate behind them, Of any passing by and turning back, And they set a desirable land for a desolation!