Zechariah 7 (New American Standard Bible)

Zechariah 7

Hearts like Flint

 ¹In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is ^(A)Chislev.

 ²Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to ^(B)seek the favor of the LORD,

 ³speaking to the ^(C)priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Shall I weep in the ^(D)fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?"

 ⁴Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,

 ⁵"Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these ^(E)seventy years, was it actually for ^(F)Me that you fasted?

 ⁶'When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?

 ⁷'Are not these the words which the LORD ^(G)proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and ^(H)prosperous along with its cities around it, and the ^(I)Negev and the foothills were inhabited?'"

 ⁸Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying,

 ⁹"Thus has the LORD of hosts said, '^(J)Dispense true justice and practice ^(K)kindness and compassion each to his brother;

 ¹⁰and ^(L)do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do ^(M)not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'

 ¹¹"But they ^(N)refused to pay attention and ^(O)turned a stubborn shoulder and ^(P)stopped their ears from hearing.

 ¹²"They made their ^(Q)hearts like ^(R)flint so that they could not hear the law and the ^(S)words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the ^(T)former prophets; therefore great ^(U)wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

 ¹³"And just as ^(V)He called and they would not listen, so ^(W)they called and I would not listen," says the LORD of hosts;

 ¹⁴"but I ^(X)scattered them with a ^(Y)storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known Thus the land is ^(Z)desolated behind them so that ^(AA)no one went back and forth, for they ^(AB)made the pleasant land desolate."