1 And in the fourth year of Sovereign Dareyawesh it came to be that the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 came to Zeḵaryah, on the fourth of the ninth month, Kislĕw.
2 Now Bĕyth Ĕl had sent Sar-Etser, with Reḡem-Meleḵ and his men, to pray before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄,
3 speaking to the kohenim who belonged to the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, and to the neḇi’im, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?”
4 Then the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts came to me, saying,
5 “Speak to all the people of the land, and to the kohenim, saying, ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months all these seventy years, did you truly fast for Me – for Me?
6 ‘And when you ate and when you drank, was it not for those eating and for those drinking?
7 ‘Are these not the words which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 proclaimed through the former neḇi’im when Yerushalayim and the cities around it were inhabited and in safety, and the South and the low country were inhabited?’ ”
8 And the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 came to Zeḵaryah, saying,
9 “Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, ‘Judge true right-ruling, show kindness and compassion everyone to his brother.
10 “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
11 “But they refused to listen, and they shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears from hearing.
12 “And they made their hearts like flint against hearing the Torah, and the words, which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts had sent by His Ruaḥ through the former neḇi’im. Therefore great wrath came from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts.
13 “And it came to be: as He called and they did not hear, so let them call, but I shall not hear,” said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 hosts.
14 “And I scattered them with a storm wind among all the gentiles which they had not known. And the land was laid waste behind them, no one passing through or returning, for they made the pleasant land a waste.”