ZechariahChapter 7
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1In the fourth year that Darius was king, the LORD gave a message to Zechariah. It was on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. 2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men. They came to ask the LORD for his favor. 3They asked the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts and the prophets a question. They said, "Should I cry and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?" 4Then the LORD of Hosts gave me this message: 5"Ask all the people of the land and the priests this: 'For these seventy years, you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months. But was it really for me that you fasted? 6And when you ate and drank, weren't you just doing it for yourselves? 7Aren't these the same words the LORD announced through the earlier prophets? Back then Jerusalem and the towns around it were full of people and doing well. People lived in the Negev and in the foothills too.'" 8Then the LORD gave this message to Zechariah: 9"This is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'Judge fairly and truly. Show faithful love and kindness to one another. 10Do not be cruel to widows or orphans. Do not be cruel to foreigners or poor people. And do not make evil plans in your hearts against each other.' 11But they refused to pay attention. They stubbornly turned their backs. They covered their ears so they would not hear. 12They made their hearts as hard as stone. They would not listen to the law. They would not listen to the words the LORD of Hosts had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD of Hosts became very angry. 13'Just as I called and they would not listen, so when they called, I would not listen,' says the LORD of Hosts. 14'I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations they did not know. The land they left behind was ruined. No one could come or go. That is how they turned the pleasant land into an empty ruin.'"