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¹ And in the fourth yere of king Darius, the word of the lorde came vnto Zacharia in the fourth [day] of the ninth moneth, which is called Casleu,² What time as Sarasar & Rogommelech, and the men that were with them, sent vnto the house of God for to pray before the Lorde:³ And that they shoulde speake vnto the priestes which were in the house of the Lorde of hoastes, and to the prophetes, saying: should I wepe in the fifth moneth, & abstayne as I haue done nowe certaine yeres?⁴ Then came the worde of the Lorde of hoastes vnto me, saying:⁵ Speake vnto al the people of the land, and to the priestes, & say: When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth & seuenth moneth now this threescore & ten yeres, did ye fast vnto me?⁶ When ye did eate also & drincke, did ye not eate & drincke for your owne selues?⁷ Are not these the wordes which the Lord spake by his prophetes aforetime, when Hierusalem was yet inhabited & wealthy, she and the cities round about her, whe there dwelt men both toward the south and in the playne countreys?

⁸ And the worde of the Lorde came vnto Zachari, saying:⁹ Thus saith the Lord of hoastes: Execute true iudgement, shew mercie & louing kindnes euery man to his brother.¹⁰ Do the wydow, the fatherlesse, the straungers and poore no wrong, and let no man imagine euil against his brother in his heart.¹¹ Neuerthelesse, they would not take heede, but turned their backes, & stopped their eares that they should not heare:¹² Yea, they made their heartes as an Adamant stone, lest they should heare the law and wordes which the Lorde of hoastes sent in his holy spirite by the prophetes aforetime: Wherfore the lord of hoastes was very wroth at them.¹³ And thus is it come to passe, that like as he cryed, and they would not heare: euen so they cryed, & I would not heare saith the Lord God of hoastes:¹⁴ But scattred them among al the nations whom they knew not: Thus the land was made so desolate after them, that there trauayled no man in it neither to nor fro: for that plesaunt lande was vtterly layd waste.