Zechariah 7

1 And it happened, in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev.

The Lord sent a message to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. This was during the fourth year of king Darius' reign.

2 And Sharezer and Regemmelech, and the men who were with them, sent to the house of God, to entreat the face of the Lord,

Bethel-sharezer sent Regem-melech and his men to ask for the Lord's blessing.

3 to speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and to the prophets, saying: “Must there be weeping with me in the fifth month, and must I sanctify myself, as I have now done for many years?”

They were to ask the priests of the Temple of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I go on mourning and fasting in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

4 And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:

The Lord Almighty sent a message to me saying,

5 Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: Although you may have fasted and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years, did you indeed keep a fast unto me?

Tell everyone in the land and the priests, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and the seventh month during these seventy years, was it really me you were fasting for?

6 And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink only for yourselves?

And when you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink for yourselves?

7 Are not these the words that the Lord has spoken by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was still inhabited, so that it would prosper, itself and the cities around it, and those inhabitants towards the South and in the plains?

Isn't this what the Lord told you to do through the former prophets, when Jerusalem was prosperous and inhabited, and when people were living in the Negev and the Shephelah?

8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying:

The Lord Almighty sent another message to me.

9 Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge with true judgment, and act with mercy and compassion, each and every one with his brother.

This is what the Lord says. Judge fairly and truthfully. Show mercy and kindness to one another.

10 And do not find fault with the widow, and the orphan, and the newcomer, and the poor. And let not a man consider evil in his heart towards his brother.

Don't exploit those who are widowed or fatherless, foreigners or the poor. Don't think up ways of mistreating one other.

11 But they were not willing to pay attention, and they turned aside their shoulder to depart, and they pressed upon their ears, so that they would not hear.

But they refused to listen. They were obstinate, turning their backs and closing their ears.

12 And they set their heart like the hardest stone, so that they would not hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts has sent with his Spirit by the hand of the former prophets. And so a great indignation came from Lord of hosts.

They made their minds unreceptive, as hard as stone. They refused to listen to the law or to what the Lord Almighty told them by his Spirit through the former prophets. That's why the Lord Almighty became very angry with them.

13 And it happened, just as he had spoken, and they did not pay attention. So then, they shall cry out, and I will not heed, says the Lord of hosts.

So since they didn't listen when I called out to them, I wouldn't listen when they called out to me, says the Lord Almighty.

14 And I dispersed them throughout all the kingdoms that they did not know. And the land was left desolate behind them, so that no one was passing through or returning. And they made the desirable land into a deserted place.

With the winds of a storm I scattered them among the nations where they lived as foreigners. The land they left became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned the Promised Land into a desert.