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.
Et factum est in anno quarto Darii regis, factum est verbum Domini ad Zachariam, in quarta mensis noni, qui est Casleu.
2 Bethel-sharezer sent Regem-melech and his men to ask for the Lord's blessing.
Et miserunt ad domum Dei Sarasar et Rogommelech, et viri qui erant cum eo, ad deprecandam faciem Domini:
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?”
ut dicerent sacerdotibus domus Domini exercituum, et prophetis, loquentes: Numquid flendum est mihi in quinto mense, vel sanctificare me debeo, sicut jam feci multis annis?
4 The Lord Almighty sent a message to me saying,
Et factum est verbum Domini exercituum ad me, dicens:
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?
Loquere ad omnem populum terræ, et ad sacerdotes, dicens: Cum jejunaretis, et plangeretis in quinto et septimo per hos septuaginta annos, numquid jejunium jejunastis mihi?
6 And when you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink for yourselves?
et cum comedistis et bibistis, numquid non vobis comedistis et vobismetipsis bibistis?
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?
numquid non sunt verba quæ locutus est Dominus in manu prophetarum priorum, cum adhuc Jerusalem habitaretur ut esset opulenta, ipsa et urbes in circuitu ejus, et ad austrum, et in campestribus habitaretur?
8 The Lord Almighty sent another message to me.
Et factum est verbum Domini ad Zachariam, dicens:
9 This is what the Lord says. Judge fairly and truthfully. Show mercy and kindness to one another.
Hæc ait Dominus exercituum, dicens: Judicium verum judicate, et misericordiam et miserationes facite, unusquisque cum fratre suo.
10 Don't exploit those who are widowed or fatherless, foreigners or the poor. Don't think up ways of mistreating one other.
Et viduam, et pupillum, et advenam, et pauperem nolite calumniari: et malum vir fratri suo non cogitet in corde suo.
11 But they refused to listen. They were obstinate, turning their backs and closing their ears.
Et noluerunt attendere, et averterunt scapulam recedentem, et aures suas aggravaverunt ne audirent.
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.
Et cor suum posuerunt ut adamantem, ne audirent legem, et verba quæ misit Dominus exercituum in spiritu suo per manum prophetarum priorum: et facta est indignatio magna a Domino exercituum.
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.
Et factum est sicut locutus est, et non audierunt: sic clamabunt et non exaudiam, dicit Dominus exercituum.
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.
Et dispersi eos per omnia regna quæ nesciunt: et terra desolata est ab eis, eo quod non esset transiens et revertens: et posuerunt terram desiderabilem in desertum.
