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, the month of
Chislev. 2 The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech, and their
men, to entreat Yahweh’s favor, 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 the word of Yahweh of Hosts came 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 for these seventy years, did
you at all fast to me, really to me? 6 When you eat, and when
you drink, don’t you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
7 Aren’t these the words which Yahweh proclaimed by the former prophets,
when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities around 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 Don’t oppress the widow, nor the
fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil
against his brother in your heart.’ 11 But they refused to listen, and
turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
12 Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the
law, and the words which Yahweh of Hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former
prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Hosts. 13 It has come
to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call,
and I will not listen,” 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 made the pleasant land desolate.”
World English Bible - Public Domain |
|
|
