| NET Bible | English Standard Version |
| 1In King Darius' fourth year, on the fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah. | 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. |
| 2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the LORD's favor | 2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD, |
| 3by asking both the priests of the temple of the LORD who rules over all and the prophets, "Should we weep in the fifth month, fasting as we have done over the years?" | 3saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” |
| 4The word of the LORD who rules over all then came to me, | 4Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: |
| 5"Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: 'When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me--for me, indeed? | 5“Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? |
| 6And now when you eat and drink, are you not doing so for yourselves?'" | 6And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? |
| 7Should you not have obeyed the words that the LORD cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah were also populated? | 7Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’” |
| 8Again the word of the LORD came to Zechariah: | 8And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, |
| 9"The LORD who rules over all said, 'Exercise true judgment and show brotherhood and compassion to each other. | 9“Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, |
| 10You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.' | 10do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” |
| 11"But they refused to pay attention, turning away stubbornly and stopping their ears so they could not hear. | 11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. |
| 12Indeed, they made their heart as hard as diamond, so that they could not obey the Torah and the other words the LORD who rules over all had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, the LORD who rules over all had poured out great wrath. | 12They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. |
| 13"'It then came about that just as I cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,' the LORD LORD who rules over all had said. | 13“As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts, |
| 14Rather, I will sweep them away in a storm into all the nations they are not familiar with.' Thus the land had become desolate because of them, with no one crossing through or returning, for they had made the fruitful land a waste." | 14“and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.” |
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