Parallel Bible results for "zechariah 7"

Zechariah 7

Good News Translation GNT

1 In the fourth year that Darius was emperor, on the fourth day of the ninth month (the month of Kislev), the Lord gave me a message.

2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to the Temple of the Lord Almighty to pray for the Lord's blessing

3 and to ask the priests and the prophets this question: "Should we continue to mourn because of the destruction of the Temple, by fasting in the fifth month as we have done for so many years now?"

4 This is the message of the Lord that came to me.

5 He said, "Tell the people of the land and the priests that when they fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during these seventy years, it was not in honor of me.

6 And when they ate and drank, it was for their own satisfaction."

7 This is what the Lord said through the earlier prophets at the time when Jerusalem was prosperous and filled with people and when there were many people living not only in the towns around the city but also in the southern region and in the western foothills.

8 The Lord gave this message to Zechariah:

9 "Long ago I gave these commands to my people: "You must see that justice is done, and must show kindness and mercy to one another.

10 Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners who live among you, or anyone else in need. And do not plan ways of harming one another.'

11 "But my people stubbornly refused to listen. They closed their minds

12 and made their hearts as hard as rock. Because they would not listen to the teaching which I sent through the prophets who lived long ago, I became very angry.

13 Because they did not listen when I spoke, I did not answer when they prayed.

14 Like a storm I swept them away to live in foreign countries. This good land was left a desolate place, with no one living in it."

World English Bible WEB

1 It happened in the fourth year of king Darius that the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.

2 The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to entreat Yahweh's favor,

3 and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?"

4 Then the word of Yahweh of Hosts came to me, saying,

5 "Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?

6 When you eat, and when you drink, don't you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 Aren't these the words which Yahweh proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?'"

8 The word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying,

9 "Thus has Yahweh of Hosts spoken, saying, 'Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.

10 Don't oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.'

11 But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.

12 Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which Yahweh of Hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Hosts.

13 It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen," said Yahweh of Hosts;

14 "but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they made the pleasant land desolate."