Zechariah 7

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 armies, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the 6fifth month 7and fast, as I have done these many years?” 4Then the word of the Lord of armies 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? 6And when you eat and drink, 11do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? 7Are these not the words which the Lord 12proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and 13carefree along with its cities around it, and the 1415Negev and the 16foothills were inhabited?’”

8Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9“This is what the Lord of armies has said: ‘17Dispense true justice and practice 18kindness and compassion each to his brother; 10and 19do not oppress the widow or the 20orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do 21not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11But they 22refused to pay attention, and 2324turned a stubborn shoulder and 2526plugged their ears from hearing. 12They also made their 27hearts as hard as 28a diamond 29so that they could not hear the Law and the 30words which the Lord of armies had sent by His Spirit through the 31former prophets; therefore great 32wrath came from the Lord of armies. 13And just as 33He called and they would not listen, so 34they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of armies; 14“but I 3536scattered them with a 37storm wind among all the nations whom they did not know. So the land was 38desolated behind them 39so that 40no one went back and forth, since they 41made the pleasant land desolate.”