| English Standard Version | International Standard Version |
| 1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. | 1During the fourth year of the reign of King Darius, a message from the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month Kislev. |
| 2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD, | 2The people of Bethel were sending Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to pray in the LORD's presence |
| 3saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” | 3and to speak to the priests assigned to the Temple of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies along with the prophets, asking, "Am I to go about mourning, denying myself throughout the fifth month, as I have these many years?" |
| 4Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: | 4Then this message from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies came to me: |
| 5“Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? | 5"Talk to everyone in the land, as well as to the priests. Ask them, 'When you were fasting and mourning during the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, were you really fasting for me? |
| 6And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? | 6And when you eat and drink, you're eating and drinking for your own benefit, aren't you? |
| 7Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’” | 7Isn't this what the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets, when a prosperous Jerusalem was inhabited, as were its surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah?'" |
| 8And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, | 8This message from the LORD came to Zechariah again: |
| 9“Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, | 9"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: 'Administer true justice, and show gracious love and mercy toward each other. |
| 10do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” | 10You are not to wrong the widow, orphans, the foreigner, or the poor, and you are not to plan evil against each other. |
| 11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. | 11But they refused to pay attention, turned their backs, and stopped listening. |
| 12They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. | 12They made their hearts hard like a diamond, to keep from obeying the Law and the messages that the LORD of the Heavenly Armies sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. |
| 13“As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts, | 13Therefore, just as when I cried out and they would not listen, so also they will cry out, and I will not listen,' says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. |
| 14“and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.” | 14I will scatter them to all of the nations, which they have not known.'" Now the earth was left desolate after them. As a result, no one came or went because they had turned a pleasant land into a desert. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
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