⁸ And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: ⁹ “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice;^(A) show mercy and compassion to one another.^{(B) 10} Do not oppress the widow^(C) or the fatherless, the foreigner^(D) or the poor.^(E) Do not plot evil against each other.’^(F)

¹¹ “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly^(G) they turned their backs^(H) and covered their ears.^{(I) 12} They made their hearts as hard as flint^(J) and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.^(K) So the Lord Almighty was very angry.^(L)

¹³ “‘When I called, they did not listen;^(M) so when they called, I would not listen,’^(N) says the Lord Almighty.^{(O) 14} ‘I scattered^(P) them with a whirlwind^(Q) among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it.^(R) This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.^(S)’”