Zechariah 7 NKJV ISV Parallel

◄ Zechariah 7 ►

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1Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, 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.

2when the people sent Sherezer, with Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God, to pray before the LORD,

2The people of Bethel were sending Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to pray in the LORD's presence

3and to ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so 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, saying,

4Then this message from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies came to me:

5“Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—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 when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?

6And when you eat and drink, you're eating and drinking for your own benefit, aren't you?

7Should you not have obeyed the words which the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland 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?'"

8Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,

8This message from the LORD came to Zechariah again:

9“Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Execute true justice, Show mercy and compassion Everyone to his brother.

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 alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart Against his brother.’

10You are not to wrong the widow, orphans, the foreigner, or the poor, and you are not to plan evil against each other.

11“But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear.

11But they refused to pay attention, turned their backs, and stopped listening.

12Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath 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.

13Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and 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.

14“But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

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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