The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Zechariah 07
1 In the fourth year of King Darius,
Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah in the
fourth day of the ninth month, the month
of Chislev.
2 The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and
Regem Melech and their men to entreat
Yahweh’s favor,
3 and to speak to the priests of the house
of Yahweh of Armies and to the prophets,
saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month,
separating myself, as I have done these so
many years?”
4 Then the word of Yahweh of Armies
came to me, saying,
5 “Speak to all the people of the land and
to thepriests, saying, ‘Whenyoufastedand
mourned in the fifth and in the seventh
month for these seventy years, did you at
all fast to me, really to me?
6 When you eat and when you drink,
don’t you eat for yourselves and drink for
yourselves?
7 Aren’t these the words which Yahweh
proclaimed by the former prophets when
Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity,
and its cities around her, and the South
and the lowland were inhabited?’ ”
8 Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah, saying,
9 “Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken,
saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show
kindness and compassion every man to his
brother.
10 Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless,
the foreigner, nor the poor; and let
none of you devise evil against his brother
in your heart.’
11 But they refused to listen, and turned
their backs, and stopped their ears, that
they might not hear.
12 Yes, they made their hearts as hard
as flint, lest they might hear the law and
the words which Yahweh of Armies had
sent by his Spirit by the former prophets.
Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh
of Armies.
13 It has come to pass that, as he called
and they refused to listen, so they will
call and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of
Armies;
14 “but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they
have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed
through nor returned; for they made the
pleasant land desolate.”