Zechariah 7 HCSB NLT Parallel

◄ Zechariah 7 ►

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Holman Christian Standard Bible

New Living Translation

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.

1On December 7 of the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, another message came to Zechariah from the LORD.

2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to plead for the LORD's favor

2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, along with their attendants, to seek the LORD’s favor.

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?"

3They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”

4Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me: "

4The LORD of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply:

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“Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?

6When you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink simply for yourselves?

6And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?

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 the same message the LORD proclaimed through the prophets in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah were well populated?’”

8The word of the LORD came to Zechariah: "

8Then this message came to Zechariah from the LORD:

9The LORD of Hosts says this: Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another.

9“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another.

10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.

10Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.

11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear.

11“Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing.

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 as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the LORD of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them.

13Just as He had called, and they would not listen, so when they called, I would not listen," says the LORD of Hosts. "

13“Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the LORD of Heaven’s 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."

14As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.”

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