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Zechariah 7
Legacy Standard Bible

The People’s Hard Hearts

7 Now it happened that in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is (A)Chislev. 2 And the town of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and [a]their men to [b](B)entreat the favor of Yahweh, 3 speaking to the (C)priests, who belong to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the (D)fifth month [c]and abstain, as I have done these many years?” 4 Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, 5 “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months [d]these (E)seventy years, was it actually for (F)Me that you fasted? 6 And when you eat and when you drink, [e]are you not eating for yourselves and are you not drinking for yourselves? 7 Are not these the words which Yahweh (G)called out by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and (H)at ease along with its cities around it, and the [f](I)Negev and the [g]Shephelah were inhabited?’”

8 Then the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah saying, 9 “Thus has Yahweh of hosts said, ‘(J)Judge with true justice and show (K)lovingkindness and compassion each to his brother; 10 and (L)do not oppress the widow or the [h]orphan, the sojourner or the afflicted; and do (M)not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11 But they (N)refused to give heed and [i](O)turned a stubborn shoulder and [j](P)dulled their ears from hearing. 12 And they made their (Q)hearts [k](R)diamond-hard [l]so that they could not hear the law and the (S)words which Yahweh of hosts had sent by His Spirit by the hand of the (T)former prophets; therefore great (U)wrath came from Yahweh of hosts. 13 And it happened that just as (V)He called and they would not listen, so (W)they called and I would not listen,” says Yahweh of hosts; 14 “but I [m](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 [n]so that (AA)no one was passing through and returning, for they (AB)made the pleasant land desolate.”

Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 7:2 Lit his
  2. Zechariah 7:2 Lit soften the face of
  3. Zechariah 7:3 Or dedicating myself; lit abstaining
  4. Zechariah 7:5 Lit and these
  5. Zechariah 7:6 Lit is it not you who eat and you who drink
  6. Zechariah 7:7 South country
  7. Zechariah 7:7 Or lowland
  8. Zechariah 7:10 Or fatherless
  9. Zechariah 7:11 Lit gave
  10. Zechariah 7:11 Lit heavy, hardened; cf. Ex 8:15; 1 Sam 6:6
  11. Zechariah 7:12 Lit corundum
  12. Zechariah 7:12 Lit from hearing
  13. Zechariah 7:14 Lit stormed them away upon all
  14. Zechariah 7:14 Lit from passing and from returning
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Zechariah 7
New English Translation

The Hypocrisy of False Fasting

7 In King Darius’ fourth year, on the fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month,[a] the Lord’s message came to Zechariah. 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the Lord’s favor 3 by asking both the priests of the temple[b] of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month,[c] fasting as we have done over the years?” 4 The message of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies then came to me, 5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh[d] months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me—for me, indeed? 6 And now when you eat and drink, are you not doing so for yourselves? 7 Should you not have obeyed the words that the Lord cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the foothills[e] were also populated?’”

8 Again the Lord’s message came to Zechariah: 9 “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies said, ‘Exercise true judgment and show brotherhood and compassion to each other. 10 You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the resident foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow citizen.’[f]

11 “But they refused to pay attention, turning away stubbornly and stopping their ears so they could not hear. 12 Indeed, they made their hearts as hard as diamond,[g] so that they could not obey the law of Moses[h] and the other words the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies poured out great wrath.

13 “‘Just as I[i] called out, but they would not obey, so they will call out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. 14 ‘Rather, I will sweep them away in a storm into all the nations they are not familiar with.’ Thus the land became desolate because of them, with no one crossing through or returning, for they had made the fruitful[j] land a waste.”

Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 7:1 sn The fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month would be December 7, 518 b.c., 22 months after the previous eight visions.
  2. Zechariah 7:3 tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
  3. Zechariah 7:3 sn This lamentation marked the occasion of the destruction of Solomon’s temple on August 14, 586 b.c., almost exactly 70 years earlier (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8).
  4. Zechariah 7:5 tn The seventh month apparently refers to the anniversary of the assassination of Gedaliah, governor of Judah (Jer 40:13-14; 41:1), in approximately 581 b.c.
  5. Zechariah 7:7 sn The foothills (שְׁפֵלָה, shephelah) are the region between the Judean hill country and the Mediterranean coastal plain.
  6. Zechariah 7:10 tn Heb “brother.” The Hebrew term ‘akh (אָח) may refer to a brother, relative, fellow countryman, or companion.sn Cf. Exod 22:21; Lev 19:33-34; Deut 10:18-19; 24:14, 17; 27:19.
  7. Zechariah 7:12 tn The Hebrew term שָׁמִיר (shamir) means literally “hardness” and since it is said in Ezek 3:9 to be harder than flint, many scholars suggest that it refers to diamond. It is unlikely that diamond was known to ancient Israel, however, so probably a hard stone like emery or corundum is in view. The translation nevertheless uses “diamond” because in modern times it has become proverbial for its hardness. A number of English versions use “flint” here (e.g., NASB, NIV).
  8. Zechariah 7:12 tn Heb “Torah”; the five books of Moses that make up the Pentateuch.
  9. Zechariah 7:13 tn Heb “he.” Since the third person pronoun refers to the Lord, it has been translated as a first person pronoun (“I”) to accommodate English style, which typically does not exhibit switches between persons of pronouns in the same immediate context as Hebrew does.
  10. Zechariah 7:14 tn Or “desirable”; traditionally “pleasant” (so many English versions; cf. TEV “This good land”).
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