1In 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.

2Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and Lit histheir men to Lit soften the face ofseek the favor of the Lord,

3speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of armies, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month Lit to fastand fast, as I have done these many years?”

4Then the word of the Lord of armies 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 Lit and thisthese seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?

6And when you eat and drink, Lit is it not you who eat and you who drinkdo you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

7Are these not the words which the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and carefree along with its cities around it, and the I.e., South countryNegev and the Heb Shephelahfoothills were inhabited?’ ”

8Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,

9“This is what the Lord of armies has said: ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;

10and do not oppress the widow or the Or fatherlessorphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’

11But they refused to pay attention, and Lit gaveturned a stubborn shoulder and Lit made their ears heavyplugged their ears from hearing.

12They also made their hearts as hard as a diamond Lit from hearingso that they could not hear the Law and the words which the Lord of armies had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of armies.

13And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of armies;

14“but I Lit stormed them away upon allscattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they did not know. So the land was desolated behind them Lit from passing and from returningso that no one went back and forth, since they made the pleasant land desolate.”