| 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 | When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, |
| 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 came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, |
| 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 ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat [for yourselves], and drink [for yourselves]? |
| 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 | And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, |
| 9 | Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: |
| 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 refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. |
| 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 | 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 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. |
