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The Prophecy
of Zacharias 7
And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius,
that the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, in the
fourth day of the ninth month, which is Casleu.
When Sarasar, and Rogommelech, and the men that were
with him, sent to the house of God, to entreat the face
of the Lord:
To speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of
hosts, and to the prophets, saying: Must I weep in the
fifth month, or must I sanctify myself as I have now
done for many years?
And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:
Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests,
saying: When you fasted, and mourned in the fifth and
the seventh month for these seventy years: did you keep
a fast unto me?
And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for
yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
Are not these the words which the Lord spoke by the
hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem as yet was
inhabited, and was wealthy, both itself and the cities
round about it, and there were inhabitants towards the
south, and in the plain?
And the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, saying:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge ye true
judgment, and shew ye mercy and compassion every man
to his brother.
And oppress not the widow, and the fatherless, and the
stranger, and the poor: and let not a man devise evil
in his heart against his brother.
But they would not hearken, and they turned away the
shoulder to depart: and they stopped their ears, not
to hear.
And they made their heart as the adamant stone, lest
they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord
of hosts sent in his spirit by the hand of the former
prophets: so a great indignation came from the Lord
of hosts.
And it came to pass that as he spoke, and they heard
not: so shall they cry, and I will not hear, saith the
Lord of hosts.
And I dispersed them throughout all kingdoms, which
they know not: and the land was left desolate behind
them, so that no man passed through or returned: and
they changed the delightful land into a wilderness. |