And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Daryavesh, that the word of the Lord came to Zekharya on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Kislev;

when Bet-el, Shar᾽eżer, and Regem-melekh, and his men had sent to entreat the favour of the Lord,

and to speak to the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?

Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,

Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you really fasted?

And when you did eat, and when you did drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

Should you not hear the words which the Lord has proclaimed by the former prophets, when Yerushalayim was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities round about her, when the Negev and the coastal plain were inhabited?

And the word of the Lord came to Zekharya, saying,

Thus spoke the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show loyal love and mercy every man to his brother:

and do not oppress the widow, or the fatherless, the stranger, or the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.

But they refused to hearken, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear:

and they made their hearts an adamant stone, lest they should hear the Tora, and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore a great anger came from the Lord of hosts.

And so, when he cried, and they would not hear, the Lord of hosts said: So shall they cry, and I will not hear;

but I will scatter them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they know not; and the land shall be desolate after them, so that no man shall pass by or return. Thus they made the pleasant land a desolation.