1 {And then}, in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on [the] fourth [day] of the ninth month, [which is] Kislev.
2 And [the people of] Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, and their men, to entreat {the favor} of Yahweh,
3 saying to the {priests of the house of Yahweh of hosts} and to the prophets, "Should I mourn in the fifth month and keep myself separate as I have done for these many years?"
4 And the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying,
5 "Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: 'When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?
6 And when you eat and drink, are you not eating and drinking [for yourselves]?
7 [Are] not [these] the words that Yahweh proclaimed {through} the former prophets, when Jerusalem and {its surrounding towns} were inhabited and at ease, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?'"
8 And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying,
9 "Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Judge [with] trustworthy justice, and show steadfast love and compassion {to one another}.
10 You must not oppress [the] widow, [the] orphan, [the] foreigner, and [the] needy. You must not devise evil in your heart {against one another}.'
11 But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder and {stopped their ears from listening}.
12 {They made their hearts adamant} in order not to hear the law and the words that Yahweh of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets; [therefore] great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts.
13 'Thus, just as I called and they would not hear, so they will call and I will not hear,' says Yahweh of hosts.
14 'And I scattered them with a wind among all the nations that they had not known; the land was made desolate behind them-- no one crossing through [it] or returning--and they made the desirable land a desolation.'"