Zechariah

In the fourth year of King Darius, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Kislev, the word of GOD came to Zechariah—

when Bethel-sharezer and Regem-melech and his men sentaand Regem-melech and his men sent Emendation yields “sent Regem-melech and his men.” to entreat the favor of GOD,

[and] to address this inquiry to the priests of the House of GOD and to the prophets: “Shall I weep and practice abstinence in the fifth month,bweep and practice abstinence in the fifth month Because of the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem; cf. 2 Kings 25.8ff. as I have been doing all these years?”

Thereupon the word of GOD of Hosts came to me:

Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months all these seventy years, did you fast for my benefit?

And when you eat and drink, who but you does the eating, and who but you does the drinking?

Look, this is the message that GOD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and the towns about her were peopled and tranquil, when the Negeb and the Shephelah were peopled.

And the word of GOD to Zechariah continued:

Thus said GOD of Hosts: Execute true justice; deal loyally and compassionately with one another.

Do not defraud the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor; and do not plot evil against one another.—

But they refused to pay heed. They presented a balky back and turned a deaf ear.

They hardened their hearts like adamant against heeding the instruction and admonition that GOD of Hosts sent to them by divine spirit through the earlier prophets; and a terrible wrath issued from GOD of Hosts.

Even as they were called and they would not listen, “So,” said GOD of Hosts, “let them call and I will not listen.”

I dispersed them among all those nations that they had not known, and the land was left behind them desolate, without any who came and went. They caused a delightful land to be turned into a desolation.