¹In the fourth year of King Darius , the LORD ’s word came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month , the month of Chislev .

²The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech and their men to entreat the LORD ’s favour ,

³and to speak to the priests of the house of the LORD of Armies and to the prophets , saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month , separating myself, as I have done these so many years ?”

⁴Then the word of the LORD of Armies came to me , saying ,

⁵“Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests , saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years , did you at all fast to me , really to me ?

⁶When you eat and when you drink , don’t you eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

⁷Aren’t these the words which the LORD 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 ?’”

⁸The LORD ’s word came to Zechariah , saying ,

⁹“Thus has the LORD of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgement, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.

¹⁰Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless , the foreigner , nor the poor ; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart .’

¹¹But they refused to listen , and turned their backs , and stopped their ears, that they might not hear .

¹²Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint , lest they might hear the law and the words which the LORD of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets . Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of Armies .

¹³It has come to pass that , as he called and they refused to listen , so they will call and I will not listen ,” said the LORD of Armies ;

¹⁴“but I will scatter them with a whirlwind amongst 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 .”