1And in the fourth year of Sovereign Dareyawesh it came to be that the word of יהוה came to Zeḵaryah, on the fourth of the ninth month, Kislĕw.

2Now Bĕyth Ěl had sent Shar’etser, with Reg̅em-Meleḵ and his men, to pray before יהוה,

3speaking to the priests who belonged to the House of יהוה of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?”

4Then the word of יהוה of hosts came to me, saying,

5“Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months all these seventy years, did you truly fast for Me – for Me?

6‘And when you ate and when you drank, was it not for those eating and for those drinking?

7‘Are these not the words which יהוה proclaimed through the former prophets when Yerushalayim and the cities around it were inhabited and in safety, and the South and the low country were inhabited?’ ”

8And the word of יהוה came to Zeḵaryah, saying,

9“Thus said יהוה of hosts, ‘Execute true right-ruling, show kindness and compassion everyone to his brother.

10“Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’

11“But they refused to listen, and they shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears from hearing.

12“And they made their hearts like flint against hearing the Torah, and the words, which יהוה of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from יהוה of hosts.

13“And it came to be: as He called and they did not hear, so let them call, but I shall not hear,” said יהוה of hosts.

14“And I scattered them with a storm wind among all the gentiles which they had not known. And the land was laid waste behind them, no one passing through or returning, for they made the pleasant land a waste.”