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.

In the fourth year of the reign of King Darius, on the fourth day of Chislev, the ninth month, the message of the Lord came to Zechariah.

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

The city of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor 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?

and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets “Should I continue to mourn in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done for many years?”

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

Then this message of the Lord of hosts came to me:

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?

Tell all the people of the land and the priests, “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month, for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?

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

When you eat and when you drink, do 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?

Wasn’t it this which the Lord proclaimed by the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, and her towns surrounding her and the Negreb and the Shephelah were inhabited?”

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

The Lord gave this message to Zechariah:

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:

The Lord of hosts says, execute true judgments. Show kindness and mercy to each other.

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.

Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident foreigner or the poor. Let none of you devise evil against another in your hearts.

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

But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears so they wouldn’t 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.

They made their hearts as hard as stone so they wouldn’t accept the teaching and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. Great was the anger of 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:

I called and they would not hear, so they call and I do not hear, says 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.

I scattered them by a whirlwind out among nations unknown to them. The land was left desolate behind them, with no one crossing or returning, for they made the pleasant land a desolation.