A Call to Justice and Mercy 1 ULT And it happened in the fourth year of Darius the king, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, on the fourth{ day} of the ninth month, in Kislev. BSB BSB: In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.
2 ULT Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem- Melech and his men{ to} beg before the face of Yahweh, BSB BSB: Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to plead before the LORD
3 ULT saying to the priests who{ were} at the house of Yahweh of Armies,{ and} to the prophets saying,“Should I mourn in the fifth month by means of a fast, as I have done these many years?” BSB BSB: by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”
4 ULT And it happened{ that} the word of Yahweh of Armies came to me, saying, BSB BSB: Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying,
5 ULT “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests and say,‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh{ month} for these seventy years, were you fasting, fasting for me? BSB BSB: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
6 ULT When you ate and when you drank, did you not eat and drink for yourselves? BSB BSB: And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?
7 ULT Were these not the words that Yahweh proclaimed by the hand of the former prophets, when you still inhabited Jerusalem and the surrounding cities in prosperity and were settled in the Negev and the foothills to the west?’” BSB BSB: Are these not the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’”
8 ULT The word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying, BSB BSB: Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,
9 ULT “Thus says Yahweh of Armies saying,‘Judge with true justice, and covenant faithfulness, and mercy. Let each man do this for his brother. BSB BSB: “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another.
10 ULT And the widow and orphan, the foreigner, and the poor person— do not oppress them, and let a man not plot evil{ against} his brother in your heart.’ BSB BSB: Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
11 ULT But they refused to heed and gave a stubborn shoulder. Their ears were heavy from hearing. BSB BSB: But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
12 ULT They made their heart as rock{ to keep} from hearing the law and the words that Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the hand of the former prophets. And great rage came from Yahweh of Armies. BSB BSB: They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.
13 ULT ‘It happened that as when he called, and they did not listen, so when they call, I will not listen,’ says Yahweh of Armies. BSB BSB: And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
14 ULT ‘And I scattered them with a whirlwind to all the nations that they had not known, and the land was made desolate after them from anyone passing through or returning. And they had made the land of desire into a wasteland.’” BSB BSB: But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”