Zechariah 7 — Legacy Standard Bible

The People’s Hard Hearts

7Now it happened that in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is ^aChislev. ²And the town of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and ¹their men to ²^,^aentreat the favor of Yahweh, ³speaking to the ^apriests, who belong to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the ^bfifth month ¹and abstain, as I have done these many years?” ⁴Then the word of Yahweh of hosts 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 seventh months ¹these ^aseventy years, was it actually for ^bMe that you fasted? ⁶‘And when you eat and when you drink, ¹are you not eating for yourselves and are you not drinking for yourselves? ⁷‘Are not these the words which Yahweh ^acalled out by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and ^bat ease along with its cities around it, and the ¹^,^cNegev and the ²Shephelah were inhabited?’”

⁸Then the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah saying, ⁹“Thus has Yahweh of hosts said, ‘^aJudge with true justice and show ^blovingkindness and compassion each to his brother; ¹⁰and ^ado not oppress the widow or the ¹orphan, the sojourner or the afflicted; and do ^bnot devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ ¹¹“But they ^arefused to give heed and ¹^,^bturned a stubborn shoulder and ²^,^cdulled their ears from hearing. ¹²“And they made their ^ahearts ¹^,^bdiamond-hard ²so that they could not hear the law and the ^cwords which Yahweh of hosts had sent by His Spirit by the hand of the ^dformer prophets; therefore great ^ewrath came from Yahweh of hosts. ¹³“And it happened that just as ^aHe called and they would not listen, so ^bthey called and I would not listen,” says Yahweh of hosts; ¹⁴“but I ¹^,^ascattered them with a ^bstorm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is ^cdesolated behind them ²so that ^dno one was passing through and returning, for they ^emade the pleasant land desolate.”