[1] It happened in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of Yahweh
came to Zechariah in the fourth [day] of the ninth month, even in Chislev.
[2] Now [they of] Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, and their men,
to entreat the favor of Yahweh, [3] [and] to speak to the priests of the
house of Yahweh of Hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the
fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? [4]
Then came the word of Yahweh 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 in the seventh [month], even these seventy years, did you
at all fast to me, even to me? [6] When you eat, and when you drink, do not
you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? [7] [Should you] not
[hear] the words which Yahweh cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem
was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities of it round about her, and
the South and the lowland were inhabited? [8] The word of Yahweh came to
Zechariah, saying, [9] Thus has Yahweh of Hosts spoken, saying, Execute
true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother;
[10] and don`t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor
the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your
heart. [11] But they refused to listen, and pulled away the shoulder, and
stopped their ears, that they might not hear. [12] Yes, they made their
hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words
which Yahweh of Hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets:
therefore there came great wrath from Yahweh of Hosts. [13] It is come to
pass that, as he cried, and they would not hear, so they shall cry, and I
will not hear, said Yahweh of Hosts; [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 laid the pleasant land desolate.
