A Call to Justice and Mercy

1And in the fourth yere of king Darius, the word of the lorde came vnto Zacharia in the fourth day of the ninth moneth, which is called Casleu, 2What time as Sarasar & Rogommelech, and the men that were with them, sent vnto the house of God for to pray before the Lorde: 3And that they shoulde speake vnto the priestes which were in the house of the Lorde of hoastes, and to the prophetes, saying: should I wepe in the fifth moneth, & abstayne as I haue done nowe certaine yeres? 4Then came the worde of the Lorde of hoastes vnto me, saying: 5Speake vnto al the people of the land, and to the priestes, & say: When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth & seuenth moneth now this threescore & ten yeres, did ye fast vnto me? 6When ye did eate also & drincke, did ye not eate & drincke for your owne selues? 7Are not these the wordes which the Lord spake by his prophetes aforetime, when Hierusalem was yet inhabited & wealthy, she and the cities round about her, whe there dwelt men both toward the south and in the playne countreys?

8And the worde of the Lorde came vnto Zachari, saying: 9Thus saith the Lord of hoastes: Execute true iudgement, shew mercie & louing kindnes euery man to his brother. 10Do the wydow, the fatherlesse, the straungers and poore no wrong, and let no man imagine euil against his brother in his heart. 11Neuerthelesse, they would not take heede, but turned their backes, & stopped their eares that they should not heare: 12Yea, they made their heartes as an Adamant stone, lest they should heare the law and wordes which the Lorde of hoastes sent in his holy spirite by the prophetes aforetime: Wherfore the lord of hoastes was very wroth at them. 13And thus is it come to passe, that like as he cryed, and they would not heare: euen so they cryed, & I would not heare saith the Lord God of hoastes: 14But scattred them among al the nations whom they knew not: Thus the land was made so desolate after them, that there trauayled no man in it neither to nor fro: for that plesaunt lande was vtterly layd waste.