1 The People’s Hard Hearts Now it happened that in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourthdayof the ninth month,which isChislev.
2 Andthe town ofBethel sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and 7:2Lit his their men to 7:2Lit soften the face of entreat the favor of Yahweh,
3 speaking to the priests, who belong to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month 7:3Or dedicating myself; lit abstaining and abstain, as I have done these many years?”
4 Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying,
5 “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months 7:5 Lit and these these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?
6 And when you eat and when you drink, 7:6Lit is it not you who eat and you who drink are you not eating for yourselves and are you not drinking for yourselves?
7 Are notthesethe words which Yahweh called out by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at ease along with its cities around it, and the 7:7 South country Negev and the 7:7 Or lowland Shephelah were inhabited?’ ”
8 Then the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah saying,
9 “Thus has Yahweh of hosts said, ‘Judge with true justice and show lovingkindness and compassion each to his brother;
10 and do not oppress the widow or the 7:10Or fatherless orphan, the sojourner or the afflicted; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’
11 But they refused to give heed and 7:11 Lit gave turned a stubborn shoulder and 7:11 Lit heavy, hardened; cf. Ex 8:15;1 Sam 6:6 dulled their ears from hearing.
12 And they made their hearts 7:12Lit corundum diamond-hard 7:12Lit from hearing so that they could not hear the law and the words which Yahweh of hosts had sent by His Spirit by the hand of the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts.
13 And it happened that just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says Yahweh of hosts;
14 “but I 7:14 Lit stormed them away upon all scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them 7:14 Lit from passing and from returning so that no one was passing through and returning, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”