7:1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius,
[that] the word of the LORD came to Zechariah in the fourth
[day] of the ninth month, [even] in Chisleu;
7:2 When they had sent to the house of God Sherezer and
Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before the LORD,
7:3 [And] to speak to the priests who [were] in the house of the
LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in
the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so
many years?
7:4 Then came the word of the LORD of hosts to me, saying,
7:5 Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests,
saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh
[month], even those seventy years, did ye at all fast to me,
[even] to me?
7:6 And when ye ate, and when ye drank, did ye not eat [for
yourselves], and drink [for yourselves]?
7:7 [Should ye] not [hear] the words which the LORD hath cried
by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in
prosperity, and her cities around her, when [men] inhabited the
south and the plain?
7:8 And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,
7:9 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true
judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his
brother:
7:10 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.
7:11 But they refused to hearken, and withdrew the shoulder, and
stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
7:12 Yes, they made their hearts [as] an adamant stone, lest
they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts
hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came
a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.
7:13 Therefore it is come to pass, [that] as he cried, and they
would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the
LORD of hosts:
7:14 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.
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