Zechariah, 7

1. In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh was addressed to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.

1. In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechari'ah in the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.

2. Bethel sent Sharezer with a deputation to entreat Yahweh's favour

2. Now the people of Bethel had sent Share'zer and Reg'em-mel'ech and their men, to entreat the favor of the LORD,

3. and to ask the priests in the Temple of Yahweh Sabaoth and the prophets, 'Ought I to go on mourning and fasting in the fifth month as I have been doing for so many years past?'

3. and to ask the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, "Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"

4. Then the word of Yahweh Sabaoth was addressed to me as follows,

4. Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me;

5. 'Say to all the people of the country and to the priests, "While you have been fasting and mourning in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, have you really been fasting for my sake?

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?

6. And when you were eating and drinking, were you not eating and drinking for your own sake?

6. And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

7. Do you not know the words which Yahweh proclaimed through the prophets in the past, when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure, as were her surrounding towns, and when the Negeb and the lowlands were inhabited?" ' (

7. When Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, with her cities round about her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited, were not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets?"

8. The word of Yahweh was addressed to Zechariah as follows,

8. And the word of the LORD came to Zechari'ah, saying,

9. 'Yahweh Sabaoth says this.) He said, "Apply the law fairly, and show faithful love and compassion towards one another.

9. "Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy each to his brother,

10. Do not oppress the widow and the orphan, the foreigner and the poor, and do not secretly plan evil against one another."

10. do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart."

11. But they would not listen; they turned a rebellious shoulder; they stopped their ears rather than hear;

11. But they refused to hearken, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears that they might not hear.

12. they made their hearts adamant rather than listen to the teaching and the words that Yahweh Sabaoth had sent -- by his spirit -- through the prophets in the past; and consequently the fury of Yahweh Sabaoth overtook them.

12. They made their hearts like adamant lest they should hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

13. And so, since when he called they would not listen, "I would not listen when they called", says Yahweh Sabaoth,

13. "As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear," says the LORD of hosts,

14. "but scattered them among all the nations unknown to them. Hence, after they had gone, the country was deserted, and no one came or went. They had turned a land of delights into a desert." '

14. "and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which 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."