Zechariah 7

Hearts like Flint

1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is 1Chislev. 2Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and 2their men to 34seek the favor of the Lord, 3speaking to the 5priests who belong to the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the 6fifth month 7and abstain, as I have done these many years?” 4Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, 5“Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months 8these 9seventy years, was it actually for 10Me that you fasted? 6When you eat and drink, 11do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves? 7Are not these the words which the Lord 12proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and 1314prosperous along with its cities around it, and the 1516Negev and the 17foothills were inhabited?’”

8Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, 9“Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘18Dispense true justice and practice 19kindness and compassion each to his brother; 10and 20do not oppress the widow or the 21orphan, the 22stranger or the poor; and do 23not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11But they 24refused to pay attention and 2526turned a stubborn shoulder and 2728stopped their ears from hearing. 12They made their 29hearts like 3031flint 32so that they could not hear the law and the 33words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the 34former prophets; therefore great 35wrath came from the Lord of hosts. 13And just as 36He called and they would not listen, so 37they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts; 14“but I 3839scattered them with a 40storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is 41desolated behind them 42so that 43no one went back and forth, for they 44made the pleasant land desolate.”