OET-RV ZEC Chapter 7

7 ⇔On the 4th of the ninth month (named ‘Kislev’) in the fourth year of the reign of Persian King Dareyavesh (Darius), Yahweh’s message came to Zekaryah (Zechariah).

2 The people of Beyt-El (Bethel) had sent Sharetser and Regem-Melek and their men to request prayers for Yahweh’s favour. 3 They asked the priests who were at Commander-in-chief Yahweh’s temple, along with the prophets, “Should I fast in the fifth month to show that I’m mourning, as I’ve been doing for many years?”

4 So Commander-in-chief Yahweh’s message came to me: 5 “Ask the priests and the people all over the country, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, were you truly fasting for me? 6 When you ate and drank together, weren’t you yourselves just enjoying the food and drink? 7 Weren’t those the same words that Yahweh proclaimed through the former prophets, when you still inhabited Yerushalem (Jerusalem) and the surrounding cities in prosperity and were settled in the Negev, and the western foothills?’ ”

8 Then Yahweh’s message came to Zekaryah (Zechariah): 9 “Commander-in-chief Yahweh says, ‘Judge with true justice, loyal commitment, and mercy. Let everyone do that for their neighbour. 10 Don’t oppress widows or orphans, foreigners or poor people, and none of you should plot any harm against another person, even in your mind.’

11 But they refused to pay attention, turning away stubbornly and blocking their ears so they couldn’t hear. 12 They made their hearts as hard as rock so they couldn’t hear the written law or Commander-in-chief Yahweh’s contemporary messages. He’d sent those messages to the people by his spirit in earlier times through the words of the prophets, but the people refused to listen, so Commander-in-chief Yahweh was very angry with them. 13 And so it was that when he called, they didn’t listen. In the same way,” said Commander-in-chief Yahweh, “they’ll call out to me for help, but I won’t listen. 14 I’ll use a whirlwind to scatter them to other nations that they’ve never been to before. Then the land here will become desolate after they’ve gone because no one will pass through this land or return to it since the people have made their pleasant country into a wasteland.”