1 And in the fourth year of King Darius, the Word of Jehovah came to Zechariah, in the fourth of the ninth month, in Chislev.
2 And Sherezer and Regem-melech, and his men, were sent to Bethel to make supplication before Jehovah,
3 and to speak to the priests who were in the house of Jehovah of Hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, consecrating myself as I have done these many years?
4 Then the Word of Jehovah of Hosts came unto 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, even those seventy years, did you truly fast to Me, even to Me?
6 And when you ate, and when you drank, did you not eat and drink for yourselves?
7 Are not these the Words which Jehovah proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem with her cities all around her were inhabited and prosperous, and the south and the lowlands were inhabited?
8 And the Word of Jehovah came to Zechariah, saying,
9 Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, saying, Judge true justice, and show goodness and compassion, everyone to his brother.
10 And do not oppress the widow, or the fatherless, the alien, or the poor. And do not devise evil in your heart, a man against his brother.
11 But they refused to heed, and gave a stubborn shoulder, and they made their ears heavy that they might not hear.
12 And they made their heart adamant so as not to hear the Law and the Words which Jehovah of Hosts has sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. And great wrath came from Jehovah of Hosts.
13 Therefore it has come to pass that, just as He called, and they would not hear; so they called, and I did not hear, says Jehovah of Hosts.
14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they did not know. Thus the land is desolate behind them, with no one passing through and returning; for they made the pleasant land a waste.