Zechariah 7 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

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

The town of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to ask Yahweh for his favor,

and to put a question to the priests at the house of Yahweh who commands armies, and to the prophets: "Should I keep weeping in the fifth month, holding myself apart 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 the seventh, was it me you were fasting for? Me?

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 the Negev desert and the western foothills?

And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah:

This is what Yahweh who commands armies says: give real justice when you judge. Show each other loyal love and deep compassion.

Do not squeeze the widow, the orphan, the immigrant or the poor. Do not sit there planning harm against each other.

But they refused to pay attention. They turned a stubborn shoulder and made their ears heavy so the words could not get through.

They set their hearts as hard as flint so they would not have to hear the instruction, or the words Yahweh who commands armies had sent by his Breath 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 blew them like a storm wind 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 a country anyone would want into a wasteland.