In the fourth year of the reign of King Darius of Persia, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is ^aChislev (Dec 7, 518 B.C.). 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to ^aseek the favor of the LORD, 3 speaking to the ^apriests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts and to the prophets, saying, “ Now that I am returned from exile shall I weep in the ^bfifth month mourning the destruction of the temple, and fast as I have done these many years in Babylon?” 4 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me (Zechariah) , saying, 5 “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these ^aseventy years that you were in exile, was it actually for ^bMe that you fasted? 6 When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves to satisfy your own needs? 7 Should you not hear the words which the LORD ^aproclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and ^bprosperous along with her cities around her, and the ^cSouth (the Negev) and the foothills were inhabited?’”

8 Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus has the LORD of hosts said, ‘^aDispense true justice and practice ^bkindness and compassion, to each other; 10 and ^ado not oppress or exploit the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor; and do ^bnot devise or even imagine evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11 But they ^arefused to listen and pay attention and ^bturned a stubborn shoulder stiffening themselves in resistance and ^cstopped up their ears. 12 They made their ^ahearts hard like ^bflint, so that they could not hear the law and the ^cwords which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the ^dformer prophets. Therefore great ^ewrath came from the LORD of hosts. 13 And just as ^aHe called and they would not listen, so ^bthey called and I would not listen,” says the LORD of hosts; 14 “but I ^ascattered them with a ^bstorm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land was ^cdesolate after they had gone, so that ^dno one passed through or returned, for they by their sins ^ehad made the pleasant land desolate and deserted.”