Zechariah 7

1And in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Kislev.

2Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and his men to entreat the favor of Yahweh,

3to say to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, abstaining as I have done for these many years?”

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

5Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?

6And when you eat and when you drink, is it not you who are eating, and you who are drinking?

7Are these not the words that Yahweh proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at ease, with her surrounding cities, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?

8And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying,

9Thus says Yahweh of hosts, saying: Render true judgments, and show steadfast love and compassion, each man to his brother.

10Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.

11But they refused to pay attention, turned a stubborn shoulder, and made their ears heavy so as not to hear.

12They made their hearts like diamond-hard stone, so as not to hear the law and the words that Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. So great wrath came from Yahweh of Armies.

13And just as he called and they would not listen, so they will call and I will not listen, says Yahweh of Armies.

14And I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them, with no one passing through or returning; thus they made the pleasant land a desolation.