| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, "Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?" |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5"Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?'" |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9"This is what the LORD Almighty said: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.' |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11"But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13"'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the LORD Almighty. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.'" |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
|
    |