Zech 7:5 "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?
Zech 7:6 'When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?
Zech 7:7 'Are 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?'"
Zech 7:8 ¶ Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying,
Zech 7:9 "Thus has the LORD of hosts said, 'Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;
Zech 7:10 and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'
Zech 7:11 "But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing.
Zech 7:12 "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.
Zech 7:13 "And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen," says the LORD of hosts;
Zech 7:14 "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."
Zech 8:1 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying,
Zech 8:2 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.'
Zech 8:3 "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.'
Zech 8:4 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age.
Zech 8:5 'And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.'
Zech 8:6 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?' declares the LORD of hosts.
Zech 8:7 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west;
Zech 8:8 and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.'
Zech 8:9 ¶ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days to these words from the mouth of the prophets, those who spoke in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, to the end that the temple might be built.
Zech 8:10 'For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for animal; and for him who went out or came in there was no peace because of his enemies, and I set all men one against another.