Zechariah 7

1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius, that the word of יהוה came unto Zechariah (Zekharyah) in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu;

2 When they had sent unto the house of God (El), Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before יהוה,

3 And to speak unto the kohanim who were in the house of יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot), and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?”

4 Then came the word of יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot) unto me, saying,

5 “Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the kohanim, saying: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did you at all fast unto Me, even to Me?

6 And when you did eat, and when you did drink, did not you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 Should you not hear the words which יהוה hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?’”

8 And the word of יהוה came unto Zechariah (Zekharyah), saying,

9 “Thus speaketh יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot), saying: ‘Execute true justice, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother.’

10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the Torah, and the words which יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot) hath sent in His Spirit (Ruach) by the former prophets; therefore came a great wrath from יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot).

13 “Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear,” saith יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot).

14 “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned; for they laid the pleasant land desolate.”