Zechariah

7** And in the year four of King Darius Jehovah’s word came to Zecariah on the fourth of the ninth month, in Kislev; 2 and Bethel sent Shareser and Regem-Melec and his men to propitiate Jehovah, 3* to say to the priests of the house of Jehovah of Armies and to the prophets “Are we to weep in the fifth month with devotee observances as we have been doing ever so many years?”

4 And the word of Jehovah of Armies came to me 5* “Say to all the people of the country and to the priests ‘When you fasted and wailed in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years were you fasting me? 6 and when you eat, and when you drink, is it not you that eat and drink? 7 Are not these the words Jehovah proclaimed by the former prophets while Jerusalem was settled and quiet, and her cities around her, and the South and the lowland settled, 8* —— 9 “Says Jehovah of Armies, Give true verdicts and practice friendliness and sympathy, brother with brother, 10 and do not deny justice to widow and orphan, immigrant and penniless man, and do not think up harm for a brother”? 11* and they refused to listen and turned a stubborn shoulder and a deaf ear, 12* and made their hearts adamant against listening to the instructions and messages that Jehovah of Armies had sent by his spirit through the former prophets, and there was great wrath from Jehovah of Armies. 13 And as he called and they did not hear, so, says Jehovah of Armies, will they call and I not hear. 14 And I blew them away to all the nations they had never known, and the country lay desolate behind them without goer or comer. And they rendered a charming country a desolation.’”