Thomson(i)
1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Darius the king, that a word of the Lord came to Zacharias on the fourth of the ninth month which is Chaseleu.
2 When the king and his men sent Sarasar and Arbeseer to Baithel to conciliate the favour of the Lord,
3 saying to the priests who were at the house of the Lord Almighty, and saying to the prophets, The dedication came hither in the fifth month as it hath done now for many years.
4 Then a word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying,
5 Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, Though you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, lo! for seventy years; did you keep a fast for me?
6 And though you ate and drank; did you not eat and drink for yourselves?
7 Were not these the words which the Lord spake by the ministry of the prophets who were in former times when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities around her and the hilly country and the plain were inhabited?
8 Then there was a word of the Lord to Zacharias, saying,
9 Thus saith the Lord Almighty, Execute just judgment and shew mercy and compassion one to another;
10 and oppress not the widow, nor the orphan, nor the stranger, nor the poor; and let none treasure up in his heart for evil an injury done by his brother;
11 but they refused to attend and turned back contemptuously; and stopped their ears that they might not hear;
12 and made their heart disobedient that they might not hearken to my law; therefore [according to the words which the Lord Almighty by his spirit sent by the ministry of the former prophets] there was great wrath from the Lord Almighty;
13 that it might come to pass as he said, "As they hearkened not, so they shall cry and I will not listen, saith the Lord Almighty,
14 and I will cast them out into all the nations which they knew not; and the land behind them shall be a desolation, without a traveller and without a sojourner."