Zacharias 7

¹And it came to pass in the fourth year of Darius the king, the word of our Lord was made to Zacharie, in the fourth of the ninth month, which is Casleu.

²And Sarasar, and Rogommelech, and the men that were with him, sent to the house of God, to beseech the face of our Lord:

³that they should say to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the Prophets, saying: Must I weep in the fifth month, or must I sanctify myself as now I have done many years?

⁴And the word of the Lord of hosts was made to me, saying:

⁵Speak to all the people of the land, and to the Priests, saying: When you fasted, and mourned in the fifth and the seventh for these seventy years: did you fast a fast unto me?

⁶And when you did eat & drink, did you not eat for yourselves, & drink for yourselves?

⁷Why, are they not the words, which our Lord spake in the hand of the former Prophets, when Jerusalem as yet was inhabited, & was wealthy, itself and the cities round about it, & toward the South, & in the champion there was dwelling?

⁸And the word of our Lord was made to Zacharie, saying:

⁹Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge ye true judgement, and do ye mercy, and miserations every man with his brother.

¹⁰And the widow, and the pupil, and the stranger, and the poor do not calumniate: and let not a man think in his heart evil to his brother.

¹¹And they would not attend, and they turned away the shoulder departing: and they aggravated their ears, not to hear.

¹²And they made their heart as the adamant, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord sent in his spirit by the hand of the former Prophets: and there was great indignation made from the Lord of hosts.

¹³And it came to pass as he spake, and they heard not: so shall they cry, and I will not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.

¹⁴And I dispersed them throughout all kingdoms, which they knew not: and the land was left desolate of them, for that there was none passing and returning: and the land to be desired they laid into a desert.