Zechariah 7

₁The Lord talked to Zechariah again. It was in the 4th year after Darius had become king, on the 4th day of the 9th month, the month of Kislev. ₂The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek and their men to bring an offering to the Lord ₃in the temple of the Lord who rules over all. They had to ask the priests and prophets: ‘Do we still have to cry and fast in the 5th month as we always did?’

₄Then the Lord told me: ₅‘Tell all the people in the land and all the priests: You have fasted and mourned in the 5th and 7th months for 70 years. Why did you do that? Did you fast and mourn to honour Me? No. ₆And when you do not fast, but eat and drink, why do you do it? You eat and drink because you are hungry and thirsty. ₇Can you remember what I told you long ago when I sent the prophets to you? That was when there were still people living in Jerusalem and in the towns around Jerusalem and in the Negev and the lowlands.’

₈The Lord said to Zechariah: ₉‘I, the Lord who rules over all, told you then that you must do what is right to each other and you must love one another and be good to each other. ₁₀Do not oppress widows and orphans. Be good to strangers and people who can not help themselves. And don't plan to do bad things to each other.

₁₁But my people did not want to listen to Me. They were stubborn, and they did not want to listen to what I told them. ₁₂Their hearts were as hard as stone. They did not want to listen to the laws of the Lord. They did not listen to the message that my Spirit gave them. It was the same message that the prophets had told them long before. That is why I, the Lord who rules over all, became angry. ₁₃I said: “When I called them, they did not listen. Now I will not listen when they call Me. ₁₄I will send a storm wind. This wind will blow them to other nations, to people that they do not know. The enemies will destroy their land and there will be no people living in the land. It was a beautiful land, but my people have destroyed it.” ’