Chapter 7
1 In the fourth year of King Darius , Yahweh ’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 Yahweh ’s favor ,
3 and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies and to the prophets , saying, " Should I weep in the fifth month , separating myself, as I have done these so many years ?"
4 Then the word of Yahweh of Armies came 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 ?
6 When you eat and when you drink , don’t you eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?
7 Aren’t these the words which Yahweh proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity , and its cities around her , and the South and the lowland were inhabited ?’"
8 Yahweh ’s word came to Zechariah , saying ,
9 " Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘ Execute true judgment , and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.
10 Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless , the foreigner , nor the poor ; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart .’
11 But they refused to listen , and turned their backs , and stopped their ears, that they might not hear .
12 Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint , lest they might hear the law and the words which Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets . Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Armies .
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 Yahweh of Armies ;
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 ."