| New Living Translation | Berean Study Bible |
| 1On December 7 of the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, another message came to Zechariah from the LORD. | 1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. |
| 2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, along with their attendants, to seek the LORD’s favor. | 2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to plead before the LORD |
| 3They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?” | 3by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?” |
| 4The LORD of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply: | 4Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying, |
| 5“Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting? | 5“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted? |
| 6And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves? | 6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves? |
| 7Isn’t this the same message the LORD proclaimed through the prophets in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah were well populated?’” | 7Are these not the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’ ” |
| 8Then this message came to Zechariah from the LORD: | 8Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, |
| 9“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. | 9“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another. |
| 10Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other. | 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’ |
| 11“Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. | 11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing. |
| 12They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the LORD of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them. | 12They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts. |
| 13“Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. | 13And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts. |
| 14As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.” | 14But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.” |
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