And it was, in the fourth year of Darius the king, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth of the ninth month, in Chislev.
And Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and his men to entreat the face of the LORD,
saying to the priests who belonged to the house of the LORD of hosts and to the prophets, saying, Shall I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done these many years?
And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying:
Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh, and these seventy years — did you really fast for me, for me?
And when you eat and when you drink, are you not the ones eating and you the ones drinking?
Are these not the words that the LORD called out by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at ease, and her cities around her, and the Negev and the lowland were inhabited?
And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying:
Thus says the LORD of hosts, saying: Judge a judgment of truth, and do loyal love and compassion, each to his brother.
And do not oppress the widow and the orphan, the sojourner and the afflicted; and do not devise the evil of a man’s brother in your heart.
But they refused to attend and gave a stubborn shoulder, and made their ears heavy from hearing.
And they made their heart adamant from hearing the instruction and the words that the LORD of hosts sent by his spirit by the hand of the former prophets; and there was great wrath from the LORD of hosts.
And it was: as he called and they did not listen, so they will call and I will not listen, says the LORD of hosts.
And I whirled them among all the nations whom they did not know, and the land was desolate after them, with none passing through and none returning; and they made a desirable land a horror.
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