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. 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;

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

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

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

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

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. 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should 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. 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.

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

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:

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. 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.