Zechariah 7

1And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, the word of the Yahuah came unto Zechariah in the fourth of the ninth month, in Chisleu; 2When they had sent unto the house of Elohim Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the Yahuah, 3to speak unto the priests which in the house of the Yahuah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? 4Then came the word of the Yahuah of hosts unto me, saying, 5Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh , even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, to me? 6And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat , and drink ? 7not the words which the Yahuah has cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when inhabited the south and the plain? 8And the word of the Yahuah came unto Zechariah, saying, 9Thus speaketh the Yahuah of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: 10And 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. 11But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. 12yes, they made their hearts an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Yahuah of hosts has sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Yahuah of hosts. 13Therefore it is come to pass, as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, says the Yahuah of hosts: 14But 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.