^1. IN the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.

^2. Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and [2] their men to [1] seek the favor of the LORD,

^3. speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, «Shall I weep in the fifth month [3] and abstain, as I have done these many years?»

^4. Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,

^5. «Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, "When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months [4] these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?

^6. "When you eat and drink, [5] do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?

^7. "Are not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and [8] prosperous along with its cities around it, and the [7] Negev and the [6] foothills were inhabited?'»

^8. Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying,

^9. «Thus has the LORD of hosts said, " Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;

^10. and do not oppress the widow or the [10] orphan, the [9] stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'

^11. «But they refused to pay attention and [12] turned a stubborn shoulder and [11] stopped their ears from hearing.

^12. «They made their hearts like [14] flint [13] so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

^13. «And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,» says the LORD of hosts;

^14. «but I [16] scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them [15] so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.»