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¹ And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah in the fourth [day] of the ninth month, even in Chislev.² Now [they of] Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to entreat the favor of Yahweh,³ [and] to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so 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 in the seventh [month], even these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, even to me?⁶ And when you eat, and when you drink, don't you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?⁷ [Should you] not [hear] the words which Yahweh cried out by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?

⁸ And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying,⁹ Thus has Yahweh of hosts spoken, saying, Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother;¹⁰ and don't oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.¹¹ But they refused to listen, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.¹² Yes, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which Yahweh of hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets: therefore there came great wrath from Yahweh of hosts.¹³ And it has come to pass that, as he cried out, and they would not hear, so they shall cry out, and I will not hear, said Yahweh of hosts;¹⁴ but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.