1The Jews having sent to enquire concerning the set fasts, 4Zechariah reproveth the hypocrisy of their fasts. 8They are exhorted by repentance to remove the cause of their calamity.
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1And it came to pass 1in the fourth year of king Darius, that2the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in 3Chisleu;
2When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, ato pray before the Lord,
3and to speak 1unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and 2to the prophets, saying, Should I 3weep in the 4fifth month, 5separating myself, as I have done these so many years?
4¶ Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,
5Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in 1the fifth and 2seventh month, even those 3seventy years, 4did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
6And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, adid not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
7aShould ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried bby the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the 1south and the plain?
8¶ And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,
9Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, aExecute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:
10And 1oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and 2let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
111But they refused to hearken, and apulled away the shoulder, and bstopped their ears, that they should not hear.
12Yea, 1they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent 2in his spirit aby the former prophets: therefore came 3a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.
13Therefore it is come to pass, that as 1he cried, and they would not hear; so 2they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts:
14But 1I scattered them with 2a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land 3was desolate after them, 4that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the apleasant land desolate.