The Book of the Prophet Zechariah 7 The Fast That Does Not Please God

 The Book of the Prophet Zechariah 7

The Fast That Does Not Please God

1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month in Chislev.

2 When Sharesar and Regem-Melech and their men were sent from Bethel to entreat the favor of the Lord,

3 they said to the priests who were in the house of the Lord Almighty and to the prophets, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and mourn, as I have done for so many years?”

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

5 “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests and say: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you fast for me, even for me?

6 Or when you ate and drank, did you not eat and drink for yourselves?’” 

7 Have you not heard the words that the Lord spoke through the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at peace, with its surrounding towns, and the Negev and the plain were inhabited?

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

9 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Run true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.

10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against one another in your hearts.”

11 But they refused to listen. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped up their ears so they would not hear.

12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Because of this, the Lord Almighty was very angry.

13 And it came to pass, that as he cried, and they heard not; so shall they cry, but I will not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.

14 And I will scatter them with a tempest among all the nations, which they knew not; and the land shall be desolate after them, that none shall pass through it, nor return: because they have made the land of desire a desolation.