1. And then, 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.
2. And the people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, and their men, to entreat the favor of Yahweh,
3. saying to the priests of the house of Yahweh of hosts and to the prophets, “Should I mourn in the fifth month and keep myself separate as I have done for these many years?”
4. And 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?
6. And when you eat and drink, are you not eating and drinking for yourselves?
7. Are not these the words that Yahweh proclaimed through the former prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were inhabited and at ease, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?’ ”
8. And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying,
9. “Thus says Yahweh of hosts: ‘Judge with trustworthy justice, and show steadfast love and compassion to one another.
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.’
11. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from listening.
12. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that Yahweh of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts.
13. ‘Thus, just as I 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 a desolation.’ ”