Zechariah, 7

1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, [that] the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth [day] of the ninth month, [even] in Chisleu;

1. On the fourth day of the ninth month in the fourth year of Darius, the king,

2. When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD,

2. the people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regemmelech with their men to win the favor of Yahweh

3. [And] to speak unto the priests which [were] in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?

3. and to question the priests of the House of Yahweh, God of hosts, and the prophets, "Must we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?"

4. Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying,

4. And the word of Yahweh, God of hosts came to me:

5. Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh [month], even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, [even] to me?

5. "Speak to the inhabitants of the land and to the priests; say to them: When you fasted and mourned in September and December for seventy years, was I the one who made you fast?

6. And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat [for yourselves], and drink [for yourselves]?

6. Were you not those who decided to eat and to drink or not to do so?

7. [Should ye] not [hear] the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when [men] inhabited the south and the plain?

7. Remember the message that Yahweh proclaimed through earlier prophets when Jerusalem was peacefully inhabited and the surrounding region as well, when the Negeb and the western foothills were settled.

8. And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying,

8. Yahweh said,

9. Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

9. Render true judgment, be kind and merciful to each other.

10. And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

10. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor, do not plot evil in your heart against one another.

11. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

11. But they refused to listen and stubbornly turned their back, stopping their ears.

12. Yea, they made their hearts [as] an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

12. They made their hearts hard as diamonds so as not to hear the Law or the words that Yahweh, the God of hosts spoke by his spirit through the earlier prophets.

13. Therefore it is come to pass, [that] as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:

13. Then Yahweh, God of hosts in his great anger proclaimed that just as they had not listened when he called to them, so when they cried to him he would not listen.

14. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.

14. Yahweh said he would scatter them as in a whirlwind among nations they did not know and the land behind them would be devastated without anyone passing through it. In that way a pleasant land was made desolate."