Zechariah 7

1 During the fourth year of the reign of ^{a7:1 The Heb. lacks the reign of} King Darius, a message from the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month Kislev. ^{b7:1 i.e. c. 7 December 518 BC}ISV — Zechariah 7:1

2 The people of ^{c7:2 The Heb. lacks The people of} Bethel were sending ^{d7:2 Lit. was sending} Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to pray in the LORD’s presenceISV — Zechariah 7:2

3 and to speak to the priests assigned ^{e7:3 The Heb. lacks assigned} to the Temple of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies along with the prophets, asking, “Am I to go about mourning, denying myself throughout the fifth month, ^{f7:3 i.e. the anniversary month of the Jerusalem temple’s destruction} as I have these many years?”ISV — Zechariah 7:3

4 Then this message from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies came to me:ISV — Zechariah 7:4

5 “Talk to everyone in the land, as well as to the priests. Ask them, ‘When you were fasting and mourning during the fifth and seventh months ^{g7:5 The Heb. lacks months} for the past seventy years, were you really fasting for me?ISV — Zechariah 7:5

6 And when you eat and drink, you’re eating and drinking for your own benefit, aren’t you?ISV — Zechariah 7:6

7 Isn’t this what the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets, when a prosperous Jerusalem was inhabited, as were its surrounding cities, the Negev, ^{h7:7 i.e. the southern regions of the Sinai peninsula; cf. Josh 10:40} and the Shephelah?’” ^{i7:7 i.e. the verdant central lowlands of Israel; cf. Josh 10:40}ISV — Zechariah 7:7

8 This message from the LORD came to Zechariah again:ISV — Zechariah 7:8

9 “This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘Administer true justice, and show gracious love and mercy toward each other. ^{j7:9 Lit. toward his brother}ISV — Zechariah 7:9

10 You are not to wrong the widow, orphans, the foreigner, or the poor, and you are not to plan evil against each other. ^{k7:10 Lit. toward his brother}ISV — Zechariah 7:10

11 But they refused to pay attention, turned their backs, and stopped listening.ISV — Zechariah 7:11

12 They made their hearts hard like a diamond, to keep from obeying the Law and the messages that the LORD of the Heavenly Armies sent by his Spirit through the former prophets.ISV — Zechariah 7:12

13 Therefore, just as when I ^{l7:13 Lit. he} cried out and they would not listen, so also they will cry out, and I will not listen,’ says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.ISV — Zechariah 7:13

14 ‘I will scatter them to all of the nations, which they have not known.’” Now the earth was left desolate after them. As a result, no one came or went because they had turned a pleasant land into a desert.ISV — Zechariah 7:14