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Zechariah 7

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7
The People’s Hard Hearts
1Now it happened that in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2And the town of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and #7:2 Lit histheir men to #7:2 Lit soften the face ofentreat the favor of Yahweh, 3speaking to the priests, who belong to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month #7:3 Or dedicating myself; lit abstainingand abstain, as I have done these many years?” 4Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, 5“Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months #7:5 Lit and thesethese seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? 6And when you eat and when you drink, #7:6 Lit is it not you who eat and you who drinkare you not eating for yourselves and are you not drinking for yourselves? 7Are not these the words which Yahweh called out by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at ease along with its cities around it, and the #7:7 South countryNegev and the #7:7 Or lowlandShephelah were inhabited?’ ”
8Then the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah saying, 9“Thus has Yahweh of hosts said, ‘Judge with true justice and show lovingkindness and compassion each to his brother; 10and do not oppress the widow or the #7:10 Or fatherlessorphan, the sojourner or the afflicted; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11But they refused to give heed and #7:11 Lit gaveturned a stubborn shoulder and #7:11 Lit heavy, hardened; cf. Ex 8:15; 1 Sam 6:6dulled their ears from hearing. 12And they made their hearts #7:12 Lit corundumdiamond-hard #7:12 Lit from hearingso that they could not hear the law and the words which Yahweh of hosts had sent by His Spirit by the hand of the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts. 13And it happened that just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says Yahweh of hosts; 14“but I #7:14 Lit stormed them away upon allscattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them #7:14 Lit from passing and from returningso that no one was passing through and returning, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”