Zechariah 7

1 The Lord sent a message to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. This was during the fourth year of king Darius' reign.

And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of Jehovah came unto Zechariah on the fourth [day] of the ninth month, [even] in Chislev,

2 Bethel-sharezer sent Regem-melech and his men to ask for the Lord's blessing.

when Bethel had sent Sherezer and Regem-melech, and his men, to supplicate Jehovah,

3 They were to ask the priests of the Temple of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I go on mourning and fasting in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

[and] to speak unto the priests that were in the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done now so many years?

4 The Lord Almighty sent a message to me saying,

And the word of Jehovah of hosts came unto me, saying,

5 Tell everyone in the land and the priests, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and the seventh month during these seventy years, was it really me you were fasting for?

Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh [month], even those seventy years, did ye really fast unto me, [even] unto me?

6 And when you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink for yourselves?

And when ye ate, and when ye drank, was it not you that were eating and drinking?

7 Isn't this what the Lord told you to do through the former prophets, when Jerusalem was prosperous and inhabited, and when people were living in the Negev and the Shephelah?

Are not these the words that Jehovah cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at peace, and her cities round about her, when the south and the lowland were inhabited?

8 The Lord Almighty sent another message to me.

And the word of Jehovah came unto Zechariah, saying,

9 This is what the Lord says. Judge fairly and truthfully. Show mercy and kindness to one another.

Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew loving-kindness and mercies one to another,

10 Don't exploit those who are widowed or fatherless, foreigners or the poor. Don't think up ways of mistreating one other.

and oppress not the widow and the fatherless, the stranger and the afflicted; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

11 But they refused to listen. They were obstinate, turning their backs and closing their ears.

But they refused to hearken, and turned a rebellious shoulder, and made their ears heavy, that they should not hear.

12 They made their minds unreceptive, as hard as stone. They refused to listen to the law or to what the Lord Almighty told them by his Spirit through the former prophets. That's why the Lord Almighty became very angry with them.

And they made their heart [as] an adamant, that they should not hear the law, and the words that Jehovah of hosts sent by his Spirit by the hand of the former prophets: therefore was there great wrath from Jehovah of hosts.

13 So since they didn't listen when I called out to them, I wouldn't listen when they called out to me, says the Lord Almighty.

And it came to pass, like as he called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear, saith Jehovah of hosts;

14 With the winds of a storm I scattered them among the nations where they lived as foreigners. The land they left became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned the Promised Land into a desert.

and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not, and the land was desolate after them, so that no one passed through nor returned; and they laid the pleasant land desolate.