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¹ And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, [that] the word of the LORD came to Zechariah in the fourth [day] of the ninth month, [even] in Chisleu;² When they had sent to the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before the LORD,³ [And] to speak to the priests who [were] in the house of the LORD 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 came the word of the LORD of hosts to me, saying,⁵ Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh [month], even those seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, [even] to me?⁶ And when ye ate, and when ye drank, did ye not eat [for yourselves], and drink [for yourselves]?⁷ [Should ye] not [hear] the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and her cities around her, when [men] inhabited the south and the plain?

⁸ And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,⁹ Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother:¹⁰ And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.¹¹ But they refused to hearken, and withdrew the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.¹² Yes, they made their hearts [as] an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.¹³ Therefore it is come to pass, [that] as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:¹⁴ But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.