Parallel Bible results for "zechariah 7"

Zechariah 7

New Revised Standard NRS

1 In 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.

2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the Lord,

3 and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, "Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"

4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me:

5 Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?

6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?

7 Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, along with the towns around it, and when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited?

8 The word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying:

9 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another;

10 do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.

11 But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear.

12 They made their hearts adamant in order 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.

13 Just as, when I called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts,

14 and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate.

The Message Bible MSG

1 On the fourth day of the ninth month, in the fourth year of the reign of King Darius, God's Message again came to Zechariah.

2 The town of Bethel had sent a delegation headed by Sarezer and Regem-Melech to pray for God's blessing

3 and to confer with the priests of the Temple of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, and also with the prophets. They posed this question: "Should we plan for a day of mourning and abstinence next August, the seventieth anniversary of Jerusalem's fall, as we have been doing all these years?"

4 God-of-the-Angel-Armies gave me this Message for them,

5 for all the people and for the priests: "When you held days of fasting every fifth and seventh month all these seventy years, were you doing it for me?

6 And when you held feasts, was that for me? Hardly. You're interested in religion, I'm interested in people.

7 "There's nothing new to say on the subject. Don't you still have the message of the earlier prophets from the time when Jerusalem was still a thriving, bustling city and the outlying countryside, the Negev and Shephelah, was populated?

8 [This is the message that God gave Zechariah.]

9 Well, the message hasn't changed. God-of-the-Angel-Armies said then and says now: "'Treat one another justly. Love your neighbors. Be compassionate with each other.

10 Don't take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors, and the poor. Don't plot and scheme against one another - that's evil.'

11 "But did your ancestors listen? No, they set their jaws in defiance. They shut their ears.

12 They steeled themselves against God's revelation and the Spirit-filled sermons preached by the earlier prophets by order of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. And God became angry, really angry,

13 because he told them everything plainly and they wouldn't listen to a word he said.

14 I scattered them to the four winds. They ended up strangers wherever they were. Their 'promised land' became a vacant lot - weeds and tin cans and thistles. Not a sign of life. They turned a dreamland into a wasteland."