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¹ In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is ^(C1)Chislev.² Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and ^(F1)their men to ^(F2)(C1)seek the favor of the LORD,³ speaking to the ^(C1)priests who belong to the house of the LORD of armies, and to the prophets, saying, "Shall I weep in the ^(C2)fifth month ^(F1)and fast, as I have done these many years?"⁴ Then the word of the LORD of armies came to me, saying,⁵ "Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, '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 drink, ^(F1)do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?⁷ 'Are these not the words which the LORD ^(C1)proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and ^(C2)carefree along with its cities around it, and the ^(F1)(C3)Negev and the ^(F2)foothills were inhabited?'"

⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,⁹ "This is what the LORD of armies has said: '^(C1)Dispense true justice and practice ^(C2)kindness and compassion each to his brother;¹⁰ and ^(C1)do not oppress the widow or the ^(F1)orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do ^(C2)not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'¹¹ "But they ^(C1)refused to pay attention, and ^(F1)(C2)turned a stubborn shoulder and ^(F2)(C3)plugged their ears from hearing.¹² "They also made their ^(C1)hearts as hard as ^(C2)a diamond ^(F1)so that they could not hear the Law and the ^(C3)words which the LORD of armies had sent by His Spirit through the ^(C4)former prophets; therefore great ^(C5)wrath came from the LORD of armies.¹³ "And just as ^(C1)He called and they would not listen, so ^(C2)they called and I would not listen," says the LORD of armies;¹⁴ "but I ^(F1)(C1)scattered them with a ^(C2)storm wind among all the nations whom they did not know. So the land was ^(C3)desolated behind them ^(F2)so that ^(C4)no one went back and forth, since they ^(C5)made the pleasant land desolate."