Zechariah 7

1 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.

And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, in the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Casleu.

2 Now they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech to make a request for grace from the Lord,

When Sarasar, and Rogommelech, and the men that were with him, sent to the house of God, to entreat the face of the Lord:

3 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?

To speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying: Must I weep in the fifth month, or must I sanctify myself as I have now done for many years?

4 Then the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying

And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:

5 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?

Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: When you fasted, and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years: did you keep a fast unto me?

6 And when you are feasting and drinking, are you not doing it only for yourselves?

And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 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?

Are not these the words which the Lord spoke by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem as yet was inhabited, and was wealthy, both itself and the cities round about it, and there were inhabitants towards the south, and in the plain?

8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,

And the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, saying:

9 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:

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge ye true judgment, and shew ye mercy and compassion every man to his brother.

10 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.

And oppress not the widow, and the fatherless, and the stranger, and the poor: and let not a man devise evil in his heart against his brother.

11 But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing;

But they would not hearken, and they turned away the shoulder to depart: and they stopped their ears, not to hear.

12 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.

And they made their heart as the adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts sent in his spirit by the hand of the former prophets: so a great indignation came from the Lord of hosts.

13 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:

And it came to pass that as he spoke, and they heard not: so shall they cry, and I will not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.

14 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.

And I dispersed them throughout all kingdoms, which they know not: and the land was left desolate behind them, so that no man passed through or returned: and they changed the delightful land into a wilderness.