1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2 Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and *7:2 Lit histheir men to *7:2 Lit soften the face ofseek the favor of the Lord, 3 speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of armies, and to the prophets, saying, "Shall I weep in the fifth month *7:3 Lit to fastand fast, as I have done these many years?" 4 Then 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*7:5 Lit and thisthese seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? 6 And when you eat and drink, *7:6 Lit is it not you who eat and you who drinkdo you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and carefree along with its cities around it, and the *7:7 I.e., South countryNegev and the *7:7 Heb Shephelahfoothills were inhabited?’ "

8 Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9 "This is what the Lord of armies has said: ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; 10 and do not oppress the widow or the *7:10 Or fatherlessorphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11 But they refused to pay attention, and *7:11 Lit gaveturned a stubborn shoulder and *7:11 Lit made their ears heavyplugged their ears from hearing. 12 They also made their hearts as hard as a diamond *7:12 Lit from hearingso that they could not hear the Law and the words which the Lord of armies had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of armies. 13 And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen," says the Lord of armies; 14 "but I *7:14 Lit stormed them away upon allscattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they did not know. So the land was desolated behind them *7:14 Lit from passing and from returningso that no one went back and forth, since they made the pleasant land desolate."