1 ¶ It came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chisleu;

2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to the house of God to pray before the LORD,

3 And to speak with the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, asking, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?

4 Then the word of the LORD 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 month, for those seventy years, did you really fast for me?

6 When you ate, and when you drank, didn’t you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 Should you not hear the words which the LORD has announced through the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, along with the cities around her, and when men inhabited the south and the plain?

8 ¶ And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,

9 This is what the LORD of hosts says, Execute right judgment, and let every man show mercy and compassion to his brother:

10 Do not oppress the widow, or the fatherless, the stranger, or the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

11 But they refused to listen, and pulled their shoulder away, and stopped their ears, so that they would not hear.

12 Yes, they made their hearts like hard stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts sent by his spirit through the former prophets: therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.

13 So just as they would not listen when I called; now they call and I will not hear, says the LORD of hosts:

14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations unknown to them. Thus the country left behind them was so ruined, that no man passed through or returned: for they turned the pleasant land into ruins.