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 Darius the king, that the word of Yahweh came unto Zechariah, on the fourth of the ninth month, in Chisleu;
2 Bethel-sharezer sent Regem-melech and his men to ask for the Lord's blessing.
yea when Bethel sent Sherezer and Regemmelech, and his men, —to pacify the face of Yahweh:
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?”
to speak unto the priests that pertained to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and unto the prophets, saying, —Shall I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?
4 The Lord Almighty sent a message to me saying,
Then came the word of Yahweh of hosts 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 thou unto all the people of the land, and unto the priests, saying, —When ye fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh, even these seventy years, did ye, really fast, unto, me?
6 And when you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink for yourselves?
And, when ye used to eat and when ye used to drink, was it not, of your own accord, ye did eat, and, of your own accord, ye did drink?
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?
Should ye not [have been doing] the things which Yahweh, had proclaimed, by the hand of the former prophets, while yet Jerusalem was inhabited and in peace, with her cities round about her, —and the South and the Lowland were inhabited?
8 The Lord Almighty sent another message to me.
And the word of Yahweh came unto Zechariah, saying:
9 This is what the Lord says. Judge fairly and truthfully. Show mercy and kindness to one another.
Thus, spake Yahweh of hosts, saying, —With true justice, give ye judgment, and, lovingkindness and compassions, observe ye, one with 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, the widow and the fatherless, the sojourner and the humbled, do not ye oppress, —and, wickedness between one man and another, do not ye devise in your hearts.
11 But they refused to listen. They were obstinate, turning their backs and closing their ears.
Howbeit they refused to give heed, but put forth a rebellious shoulder, —and, their ears, made they hard of hearing, that they might 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, their heart, turned they into adamant, that they might not hear the law, nor the words which Yahweh of hosts sent by his spirit, through the former prophets, —and so there came great wrath from Yahweh 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.
Therefore came it to pass that—just as he cried out and they hearkened not, so, used they to cry out, and I used not to hearken, saith Yahweh 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.
But I whirled them over all the nations whom they had not known, and, the land, was made desolate after them, that none passed through and returned, —Yea they made of a delightful land—a desolation.
