Zechariah 7:1-13 ▼

1 In the fourth year of King Darius (lord), the word of the LORD {YHWH} came to Zechariah (YHWH remembers) on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev (November and December).

2 Now the people of Bethel (house of God) had sent Sharezer (prince of fire) and Regem-melech (king's heap), along with their men, to plead before the LORD {YHWH}

3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD {YHWH} of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”

4 Then the word of the LORD {YHWH} of Hosts came to me, saying,

5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you⁺ fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you⁺ fasted?

6 And when you⁺ were eating and drinking, were you⁺ not doing so simply for yourselves?

7 Are these not the words that the LORD {YHWH} proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem (city of peace) and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and the Negev (southland) and the foothills {Shephelah} were inhabited?’”

8 Then the word of the LORD {YHWH} came to Zechariah (YHWH remembers), saying,

9 “This is what the LORD {YHWH} of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion {chesed} and compassion to one another.

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

11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing \they made their ears too heavy to hear/.

12 They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD {YHWH} of Hosts had sent by His Spirit {Ruach} through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.

13 And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD {YHWH} of Hosts.