Zechariah 7

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	KING JAMES BIBLE
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 unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu;
2 Bethelsarezer sent Regemmelech and his men to implore favor of the LORD	2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before 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 And to speak unto the priests which 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?
4 Thereupon this word of the LORD of hosts came to me:	4 Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto 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 unto 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 unto me, even to 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 ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye 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 Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?
8 (This word of the LORD came to Zechariah:	8 And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying,
9 Thus says the LORD of hosts:) Render true judgment, and show kindness and compassion toward each other.	9 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions 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, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
11 But they refused to listen; they stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears so as not to hear.	11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not 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 Yea, 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.
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 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:
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 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.