Zechariah 7:4-12

New International Version

⁴ Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: ⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted^(A) and mourned in the fifth and seventh^(B) months for the past seventy years,^(C) was it really for me that you fasted? ⁶ And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?^{(D) 7} Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets^(E) when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest^(F) and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills^(G) were settled?’”^(H)

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

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