Zechariah 7

7And then,^a in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev. ²And the people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, and their^b men, to entreat the favor^c of Yahweh, ³saying to the priests of the house of Yahweh of hosts^d and to the prophets, “Should I mourn in the fifth month and keep myself separate^e as I have done for these many years?” ⁴And the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, ⁵“Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me? ⁶And when you eat and drink, are you not eating and drinking for yourselves? ⁷Are not these the words that Yahweh proclaimed through^f the former prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns^g were inhabited and at ease, and the Negev^h and the Shephelahⁱ were inhabited?’ ”

⁸And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹“Thus says Yahweh of hosts: ‘Judge with trustworthy justice, and show^j steadfast love and compassion to one another.^{k 10}You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, and the needy. You must not devise evil in your heart against one another.’^{l 11}But they refused to listen, and turned^m a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from listening.^{n 12}They made their hearts adamant^o in order not to hear the law^p and the words that Yahweh of hosts had sent by his spirit through^q the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts. ¹³‘Thus, just as I^r called and they would not hear, so they will call and I will not hear,’ says Yahweh of hosts. ¹⁴‘And I scattered them with a wind among all the nations that they had not known; the land was made desolate behind them— no one crossing through it or returning—and they made the desirable land^s a desolation.’ ”