Zechariah 7

1 It happened in the fourth year of king Daryavesh that the word of Jehovah came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.

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.

2 The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech, and their men, to entreat Jehovah's favor,

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

3 and to speak to the priests of the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?"

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?”

4 Then the word of Jehovah of hosts came to me, saying,

The Lord Almighty sent a message to me saying,

5 "Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?

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?

6 When you eat, and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

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

7 Aren't these the words which Jehovah proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities around her, and the Negev and the lowland were inhabited?'"

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?

8 The word of Jehovah came to Zechariah, saying,

The Lord Almighty sent another message to me.

9 "Thus has Jehovah of hosts spoken, saying, 'Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.

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

10 Do not oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.'

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

11 But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.

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

12 Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which Jehovah of hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Jehovah of hosts.

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.

13 It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen," said Jehovah of hosts;

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.

14 "but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they made the pleasant land desolate."

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.