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7:1  Two years after I saw the eight visions, on the fourth day of the ninth month (called Chislev) of the fourth year of the reign of Persian King Darius, the word of the Eternal came to me, Zechariah.
7:2  The situation was this: the citizens of Bethel had sent a delegation, including Sharezer and Regemmelech and his men, to seek the favor of the Eternal One
7:3  by questioning the priests working in the temple of the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, and by questioning the prophets. Delegation: During the fifth month of every year, I fast and mourn. Should I continue separating myself from the impure world on these occasions as I have for so many years?
7:4  The word of the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies came to me and told me how to address their question.
7:5  Message: Ask the citizens of the land and the priests, “When you fasted and mourned during the fifth and seventh months for the last seventy years, were you really fasting for My benefit or just for yourselves?
7:6  When you were feasting on holy days, weren’t you just eating and drinking for yourselves instead of honoring Me?
7:7  Aren’t these the same directives the Eternal One gave you through the work of earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was bustling with people and prosperous, when the villages around Jerusalem throughout the south and the western valleys were settled?”
7:8  The word of the Eternal came to me, Zechariah, again.
7:9  Message: Here is what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has to say: “Dispense true justice, have mercy on others, and show all people compassion.
7:10  Do not take advantage of those who have lost a spouse or a parent, or those who are outsiders or poor. Don’t purpose to do evil toward your fellow Israelites.”
7:11  Some refused to listen. They turned their backs on this message and plugged their ears.
7:12  They made their hearts as hard as flint, refusing to listen to the law or the messages the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, sent by His Spirit and enacted through earlier prophets. That’s why His great wrath and calamity fell upon His people.
7:13  Eternal One: When I called out, they chose not to hear Me, so when they called out, I returned the favor and decided not to hear them.
7:14  Like a sweeping tornado, I blew them throughout the nations, scattering them in distant lands where they were aliens, all alone. That’s how the land and its cities were emptied out and left so barren that no one even traveled through it. This is how your pleasant hills and valleys turned into empty lands.