Zechariah 7

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 In the fourth year of Darius the king (the word of the LORD came to Zechariah), on the fourth day of Chislev, the ninth month,	1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, in the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Casleu.
2 Bethelsarezer sent Regemmelech and his men to implore favor of the LORD	2 When Sarasar, and Rogommelech, and the men that were with him, sent to the house of God, to entreat the face of the Lord:
3 and to ask the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts, and the prophets, "Must I mourn and abstain in the fifth month as I have been doing these many years?"	3 To speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying: Must I weep in the fifth month, or must I sanctify myself as I have now done for many years?
4 Thereupon this word of the LORD of hosts came to me:	4 And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:
5 Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month these seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?	5 Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: When you fasted, and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for these seventy years: did you keep a fast unto me?
6 And when you were eating and drinking, was it not for yourselves that you ate, and for yourselves that you drank?	6 And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
7 Were not these the words which the LORD spoke through the former prophets, when Jerusalem and the surrounding cities were inhabited and at peace, when the Negeb and the foothills were inhabited?	7 Are not these the words which the Lord spoke by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem as yet was inhabited, and was wealthy, both itself and the cities round about it, and there were inhabitants towards the south, and in the plain?
8 (This word of the LORD came to Zechariah:	8 And the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, saying:
9 Thus says the LORD of hosts:) Render true judgment, and show kindness and compassion toward each other.	9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge ye true judgment, and shew ye mercy and compassion every man to his brother.
10 Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor; do not plot evil against one another in your hearts.	10 And oppress not the widow, and the fatherless, and the stranger, and the poor: and let not a man devise evil in his heart against his brother.
11 But they refused to listen; they stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears so as not to hear.	11 But they would not hearken, and they turned away the shoulder to depart: and they stopped their ears, not to hear.
12 And they made their hearts diamondhard so as not to hear the teaching and the message that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets.	12 And they made their heart as the adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts sent in his spirit by the hand of the former prophets: so a great indignation came from the Lord of hosts.
13 Then the LORD of hosts in his great anger said that, as they had not listened when he called, so he would not listen when they called,	13 And it came to pass that as he spoke, and they heard not: so shall they cry, and I will not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.
14 but would scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they did not know. Thus the land was left desolate after them with no one traveling to and fro; they made the pleasant land into a desert.	14 And I dispersed them throughout all kingdoms, which they know not: and the land was left desolate behind them, so that no man passed through or returned: and they changed the delightful land into a wilderness.