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Zechariah 7:1-14 — Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting

Zech.7.1-14

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 . ²Now the people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to entreat the favor of the LORD, ³speaking to the priests who belonged to the house of the LORD of Hosts, and to the prophets, saying, 'Should I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done for these many years?' ⁴Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying, ⁵Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying: 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month s for these seventy years, was it for Me that you fasted, really for Me? ⁶And when you eat and when you drink, is it not you yourselves who are eating, and you yourselves who are drinking? ⁷Should you not heed the words that the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, along with its surrounding cities, and when the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?' ⁸And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹Thus says the LORD of Hosts , saying: 'Administer true justice, and show covenant loyalty and compassion, each man to his brother. ¹⁰Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.' ¹¹But they refused to pay attention, and turned a stubborn shoulder , and stopped their ears from hearing. ¹²They made their hearts like flint, so as not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of Hosts. ¹³And it came about that just as I called and they would not listen, so they will call and I will not listen,' says the LORD of Hosts. ¹⁴But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they had not known, and the land became desolate behind them, with no one passing through or returning; for they made the pleasant land into a desolation.

Translation Notes

4/11/2026

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