<<
Zechariah 7
>>
New American Standard Bible
©
Hearts like Flint
1
In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the L
ORD
came to Zechariah on the fourth
day
of the ninth month,
which is
Chislev.
2
Now
the town of
Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the L
ORD
,
3
speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the L
ORD
of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?”
4
Then the word of the L
ORD
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 seventy years, was it actually for 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 L
ORD
proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’”
8
Then the word of the L
ORD
came to Zechariah saying,
9
“Thus has the L
ORD
of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;
10
and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’
11
“But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing.
12
“They made their hearts
like
flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the L
ORD
of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the L
ORD
of hosts.
13
“And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the L
ORD
of hosts;
14
“but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org
.
Bible Browser