Old Testament · Prophets

Zechariah chapter 7

In the fourth year of King Darius, on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of , the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah.The town of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to ,and to put a question to the priests at the house of Yahweh who commands armies, and to the prophets: “Should I keep , the way I have done all these years?”Then the word of Yahweh who commands armies came to me:Tell everyone in the land, and tell the priests: for seventy years, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and , was it me you were fasting for? And when you eat and when you drink, aren’t you the ones doing the eating and the drinking?Aren’t these the very words Yahweh called out through the prophets who came before, back when Jerusalem was full of people and comfortable, with her towns around her, and there were still people living in ?And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah:This is what Yahweh who commands armies says: give when you judge. Show each other and .Do not the widow, the orphan, or the poor. Do not sit there planning harm against each other.But they refused to pay attention. They turned and made their ears heavy so the words could not get through.They set their hearts as hard as so they would not have to hear , or the words Yahweh who commands armies had sent by through the prophets who came before. So a great anger came from Yahweh who commands armies.It went like this: he called and they would not listen. So they will call and I will not listen, said Yahweh who commands armies.I out among nations they had never heard of, and the land was left empty behind them, with nobody coming or going through it. They turned into a wasteland.