Zechariah 7
Open in the reader1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of He-Who-Is came to He-Who-Is-Remembers on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev.
2Now the people of House-of-God had sent Sharezer and Heap-of-the-King, along with their men, to plead before He-Who-Is
3by asking the priests of the house of He-Who-Is of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”
4Then the word of He-Who-Is of Hosts came to me, saying,
5“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?
7Are these not the words that He-Who-Is proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Foundation-of-Peace and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and South-Country and the foothills were inhabited?’”
8Then the word of He-Who-Is came to He-Who-Is-Remembers, saying,
9“This is what He-Who-Is of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another.
10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
12They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the teaching or to the words that He-Who-Is of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from He-Who-Is of Hosts.
13And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says He-Who-Is of Hosts.
14But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”