1And it is made in the fourth year of Darius, king, the word of the Lord was made to Zechariah, in the fourth day of the ninth month, that is Chisleu, that is, November.

2And Sherezer, and Regemmelech, and men that were with them, sent to the house of the Lord, for to pray the face of the Lord;

3that they should say to priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and to prophets, and speak, Whether it is to weep to me in the fifth month, either I shall hallow me, as I did now many years?

4And the word of the Lord [of hosts] was made to me, and said,

5Speak thou to all the people of the land, and to priests, and say thou, When ye fasted, and wailed in the fifth and seventh months, by these seventy years, whether ye fasted a fast to me?

6And when ye ate, and drank, whether ye ate not to you, and drank not to yourselves?

7Whether the words of prophets be not, which the Lord spake in the hand of the former prophets, when yet Jerusalem was inhabited, and was full of riches, and it, and the cities thereof in compass thereof, and at the south and in field place was inhabited?

8And the word of the Lord was made to Zechariah, and said,

9The Lord of hosts saith these things, and speaketh, Deem ye true doom, and do ye mercy, and doings of mercy, each man with his brother.

10And do not ye falsely challenge a widow, and fatherless, either mother-less, and comeling, and poor man; and a man think not in his heart evil to his brother.

11And they would not take heed, and they turned away the shoulder, and went away, and made heavy their ears, lest they heard.

12And they set their heart as an adamant stone, lest they heard the law, and words which the Lord of hosts sent in his [holy] Spirit, by the hand of the former prophets; and great indignation was made of the Lord of hosts.

13And it is done, as he spake; and as they heard not, so they shall cry, and I shall not hear [them], saith the Lord of hosts.

14And I scattered them by all realms, which they knew not, and the land is desolate from them; for that there was not a man going and turning again, and they have put [the] desirable land into desert.