Hearts like Flint
1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the L
ORD came to Zechariah on the fourth
day of the ninth month,
which is Chislev.
2Now
the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the L
ORD,
3speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the L
ORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?
4Then the word of the L
ORD of hosts came to me, saying,
5Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?
6When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?
7Are not
these the words which the L
ORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?
8Then the word of the L
ORD came to Zechariah saying,
9Thus has the L
ORD of hosts said, Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;
10and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.
11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing.
12They made their hearts
like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the L
ORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the L
ORD of hosts.
13And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen, says the L
ORD of hosts;
14but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.
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