1. And it happened in the fourth year of King Darius, the Word of Jehovah came to Zechariah in the fourth of the ninth month, in Chislev.
2. And Sherezer and Regem-melech and his men had been sent to the house of God, to seek the favor of Jehovah,
3. to speak to the priests who belong to the house of Jehovah of Hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, consecrating myself, as I have done these many years?
4. And came the Word of Jehovah of Hosts 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, even those seventy years, did you truly fast to Me, even to Me?
6. And when you ate, and when you drank, was it not for you the eaters, and for you, the drinkers?
7. Are not these the Words which Jehovah proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited, and prosperous, and her cities all around her, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?
8. And the Word of Jehovah came to Zechariah, saying,
9. So speaks Jehovah of Hosts, saying, Judge true judgment, and practice kindness and pity, each man to his brother.
10. And do not crush the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor. And do not devise evil in your heart, of a man against his brother.
11. But they refused to listen, and gave a stubborn shoulder, and made heavy their ears from hearing.
12. And they made their hearts adamant from hearing the Law and the Words which Jehovah of Hosts has sent through His Spirit, by the former prophets. And great wrath came from Jehovah of Hosts.
13. And it will be, as He called, and they did not listen, so they called, and I did not listen, says Jehovah of Hosts.
14. But I stormed them away on all the nations whom they did not know. And the land has been wasted behind them, from passing and from returning; for they made the land of desire a waste.