| New Living Translation | New American Standard Bible 1995 |
| 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, which is Chislev. |
| 2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, along with their attendants, to seek the LORD’s favor. | 2Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of 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?” | 3speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, 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"Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? |
| 6And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves? | 6'When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink 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 not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, 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"Thus has the LORD of hosts said, 'Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; |
| 10Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other. | 10and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise 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. | 11"But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped 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. | 12"They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath 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. | 13"And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and 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.” | 14"but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate." |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit //www.lockman.org |
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