Zechariah 7

LEB(i) 1 And then,* in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev. 2 And the people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, and their* men, to entreat the favor* of Yahweh, 3 saying to the priests of the house of Yahweh of hosts* and to the prophets, "Should I mourn in the fifth month and keep myself separate* as I have done for these many years?" 4 And the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, 5 "Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: 'When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me? 6 And when you eat and drink, are you not eating and drinking for yourselves? 7 Are not these the words that Yahweh proclaimed through* the former prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns* were inhabited and at ease, and the Negev* and the Shephelah* were inhabited?'" 8 And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying, 9 "Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Judge with trustworthy justice, and show* steadfast love and compassion to one another.* 10 You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, and the needy. You must not devise evil in your heart against one another.'* 11 But they refused to listen, and turned* a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from listening.* 12 They made their hearts adamant* in order not to hear the law* and the words that Yahweh of hosts had sent by his spirit through* the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts. 13 'Thus, just as I* called and they would not hear, so they will call and I will not hear,' says Yahweh of hosts. 14 'And I scattered them with a wind among all the nations that they had not known; the land was made desolate behind them— no one crossing through it or returning—and they made the desirable land* a desolation.'"