Zechariah 7 In the fourth year of king Darius, the LORD’s word came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ In the fourth year of king Darius, the LORD’s word came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. ² The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech, and their men, to entreat the LORD's favor, ³ saying to the priests of the house of the LORD 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 Then came the word of the LORD Almighty to me: 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 are feasting and drinking, are you not doing it only for yourselves? ⁷ Are not these the words that the LORD 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 the LORD came to Zechariah: ⁹ Thus saith the Lord Almighty, Execute just judgment and shew mercy and compassion one to another; ¹⁰ And do not oppress the widow, or the fatherless, the alien, or the poor. And do not devise evil in your heart, of a man against his brother. ¹¹ But they refused to pay attention, turned their backs, and stopped listening. ¹² "They made their hearts hard like flint and would not listen to the law, and the words that the LORD Almighty sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Great anger came from the LORD Almighty!" ¹³ "'I cried, and they would not listen. Now they will cry, and I will not listen,' said the LORD Almighty! ¹⁴ But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.