Read the Bible

The People's Hard Hearts

¹ Now it happened that in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is ^(C1)Chislev.² And the town of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and ^(F1)their men to ^(F2)(C1)entreat the favor of Yahweh,³ speaking to the ^(C1)priests, who belong to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Shall I weep in the ^(C2)fifth month ^(F1)and abstain, as I have done these many years?"⁴ Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came 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 ^(F1)these ^(C1)seventy years, was it actually for ^(C2)Me that you fasted?⁶ 'And when you eat and when you drink, ^(F1)are you not eating for yourselves and are you not drinking for yourselves?⁷ 'Are not these the words which Yahweh ^(C1)called out by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and ^(C2)at ease along with its cities around it, and the ^(F1)(C3)Negev and the ^(F2)Shephelah were inhabited?'"

⁸ Then the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah saying,⁹ "Thus has Yahweh of hosts said, '^(C1)Judge with true justice and show ^(C2)lovingkindness and compassion each to his brother;¹⁰ and ^(C1)do not oppress the widow or the ^(F1)orphan, the sojourner or the afflicted; and do ^(C2)not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'¹¹ "But they ^(C1)refused to give heed and ^(F1)(C2)turned a stubborn shoulder and ^(F2)(C3)dulled their ears from hearing.¹² "And they made their ^(C1)hearts ^(F1)(C2)diamond-hard ^(F2)so that they could not hear the law and the ^(C3)words which Yahweh of hosts had sent by His Spirit by the hand of the ^(C4)former prophets; therefore great ^(C5)wrath came from Yahweh of hosts.¹³ "And it happened that just as ^(C1)He called and they would not listen, so ^(C2)they called and I would not listen," says Yahweh of hosts;¹⁴ "but I ^(F1)(C1)scattered them with a ^(C2)storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is ^(C3)desolated behind them ^(F2)so that ^(C4)no one was passing through and returning, for they ^(C5)made the pleasant land desolate."