¹There was, in the fourth year to Darius the king, the word of Yahweh to Zechariah in the fourth, in the ninth month, in Kislev,

²when Bethel sent Sharetser and Regem-Melech and his men, to ill the face of Yahweh,

³to say to the priests who to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Shall I weep in the fifth month, set apart as I made, as what years?

⁴There was the word of Yahweh of hosts to me, saying,

⁵Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh, and for seventy years, did you surely fast to me, me?

⁶And when you eat and when you drink, is it not you who eat and you who drink?

⁷Are these not the words which Yahweh called in the hand of the first prophets, when Jerusalem was dwelled and at ease, and her cities round about her, and the Negev and the Shephelah were dwelled?

⁸There was the word of Yahweh to Zechariah, saying,

⁹Like this Yahweh of hosts said, saying, Judge the justice of stability, and make loyal love and compassions, one to another;

¹⁰and widow and fatherless, sojourner and poor, do not oppress; and the evil of a man his brother, do not reckon in your heart.

¹¹But they refused to heed, and set a stubborn shoulder, and made their ears heavy from hearing.

¹²And they put their heart flint from hearing the instruction and the words which Yahweh of hosts stretched out in his breath in the hand of the first prophets; and there was great wrath from Yahweh of hosts.

¹³And it happened, as he called and they heard not, so they will call and Yahweh of hosts will hear not, he said.

¹⁴And I troubled them over all the nations which knew them not; and the land was desolated after them from one who passes by and from one who returns; and they put the finest land to the desolation.