| Holman Christian Standard Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. | 1During the fourth year of the reign of King Darius, a message from the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month Kislev. |
| 2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to plead for the LORD's favor | 2The people of Bethel were sending Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to pray in the LORD's presence |
| 3by asking the priests who were at the house of the LORD of Hosts as well as the prophets, "Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?" | 3and to speak to the priests assigned to the Temple of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies along with the prophets, asking, "Am I to go about mourning, denying myself throughout the fifth month, as I have these many years?" |
| 4Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me: " | 4Then this message from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies came to me: |
| 5Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me? | 5"Talk to everyone in the land, as well as to the priests. Ask them, 'When you were fasting and mourning during the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, were you really fasting for me? |
| 6When you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink simply for yourselves? | 6And when you eat and drink, you're eating and drinking for your own benefit, aren't you? |
| 7Aren't these the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure, along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were inhabited?" | 7Isn't this what the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets, when a prosperous Jerusalem was inhabited, as were its surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah?'" |
| 8The word of the LORD came to Zechariah: " | 8This message from the LORD came to Zechariah again: |
| 9The LORD of Hosts says this: Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. | 9"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: 'Administer true justice, and show gracious love and mercy toward each other. |
| 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another. | 10You are not to wrong the widow, orphans, the foreigner, or the poor, and you are not to plan evil against each other. |
| 11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear. | 11But they refused to pay attention, turned their backs, and stopped listening. |
| 12They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts. | 12They made their hearts hard like a diamond, to keep from obeying the Law and the messages that the LORD of the Heavenly Armies sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. |
| 13Just as He had called, and they would not listen, so when they called, I would not listen," says the LORD of Hosts. " | 13Therefore, just as when I cried out and they would not listen, so also they will cry out, and I will not listen,' says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. |
| 14I scattered them with a windstorm over all the nations that had not known them, and the land was left desolate behind them, with no one coming or going. They turned a pleasant land into a desolation." | 14I will scatter them to all of the nations, which they have not known.'" Now the earth was left desolate after them. As a result, no one came or went because they had turned a pleasant land into a desert. |
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