A Question about Going without Eating
1 On the fourth day of Chislev, the ninth month of the fourth year that Darius was king of Persia, the Lord again spoke to me. 2-3 It happened after the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer with Regem-Melech and his men to ask the priests in the Lord's temple and the prophets to pray for them. So they prayed, “Should we mourn and go without eating during the fifth month, as we have done for many years?”
4-5 It was then that the Lord All-Powerful told me to say to everyone in the country, including the priests:
For 70 years you have gone without eating during the fifth and seventh months of the year. But did you really do it for me? 6 And when you eat and drink, isn't it for your own enjoyment? 7 My message today is the same one I commanded the earlier prophets to speak to Jerusalem and its villages when they were prosperous, and when all of Judah, including the Southern Desert and the hill country, was filled with people.
8-9 So once again, I, the Lord All-Powerful, tell you, “See that justice is done and be kind and merciful to one another! 10 Don't mistreat widows or orphans or foreigners or anyone who is poor, and stop making plans to hurt each other.”
11-12 But everyone who heard those prophets, stubbornly refused to obey. Instead, they turned their backs on everything my Spirit had commanded the earlier prophets to preach. So I, the Lord, became angry 13 and said, “You people paid no attention when I called out to you, and now I'll pay no attention when you call out to me.”
14 That's why I came with a whirlwind and scattered them among foreign nations, leaving their lovely country empty of people and in ruins.
1 And in the fourth yeere of King Darius, the worde of the Lord came vnto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth moneth, euen in Chisleu, 2 For they had sent vnto the House of God Sharezer, and Regem-melech and their men to pray before the Lord, 3 And to speake vnto the Priests, which were in the House of the Lord of hostes, and to the Prophets, saying, Should I weepe in the fift moneth, and separate my selfe as I haue done these so many yeeres? 4 Then came the word of the Lord of hostes vnto me, saying, 5 Speake vnto all the people of the land, and to the Priests, and say, When ye fasted, and mourned in the fift and seuenth moneth, euen the seuentie yeeres, did ye fast vnto me? doe I approoue it? 6 And when ye did eate, and when ye did drinke, did ye not eate for your selues, and drinke for your selues? 7 Should ye not heare the wordes, which the Lord hath cryed by the ministerie of the former Prophets when Ierusalem was inhabited, and in prosperitie, and the cities thereof round about her, when the South and the plaine was inhabited? 8 And the worde of the Lord came vnto Zechariah, saying, 9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hostes, saying, Execute true iudgement, and shewe mercy and compassion, euery man to his brother, 10 And oppresse not the widowe, nor the fatherles, the stranger nor the poore, and let none of you imagine euil against his brother in your heart. 11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their eares, that they should not heare. 12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, least they should heare the Lawe and the wordes which the Lord of hostes sent in his spirit by the ministerie of ye former Prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hostes. 13 Therefore it is come to passe, that as he cried, and they would not heare, so they cried, and I would not heare, sayth the Lord of hostes. 14 But I scattered them among all the nations, whom they knew not: thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they layd the pleasant land waste.