 1 In the fourth year of king Darius, the Word of the Lord came to Zechariah in the fourth of the ninth month, in Chislev. 2 Sherezer and Regemmelech and his men had been sent to the house of God, to seek the favor of the Lord, 3 to speak to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, consecrating myself, as I have done these many years? 4 Came the Word of the Lord of hosts 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 seventh months, even those 70 years, did you truly fast to me, even to me? 6 When you ate, and when you drank, was it not for you the eaters, and for you, the drinkers? 7 Are not these the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited, and prosperous, and her cities all around her, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited? 8 The Word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, 9 Thus speaks the Lord of hosts saying, Execute true judgment and show mercy and compassion everyone to each other. 10 Do not crush the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor. And do not devise evil in your heart, of a man against his brother. 11 But they refused to listen, and gave a stubborn shoulder, and made heavy their ears from hearing. 12 They made their hearts adamant from hearing the law and the words which the Lord of hosts has sent through His Spirit, by the former prophets. And great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. 13 As He called and they did not listen, so they called and I did not listen, says the Lord of hosts. 14 But I stormed them away on all the nations whom they did not know. And the land has been wasted behind them, from passing and from returning. For they made the land of desire a waste.
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