Zechariah 7 NIV NLT Parallel

◄ Zechariah 7 ►

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1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev.

1On December 7 of the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, another message came to Zechariah from the LORD.

2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD

2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, along with their attendants, to seek the LORD’s favor.

3by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, "Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"

3They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”

4Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me:

4The LORD of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply:

5"Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?

5“Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?

6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?

6And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?

7Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?'"

7Isn’t this the same message the LORD proclaimed through the prophets in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah were well populated?’”

8And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah:

8Then this message came to Zechariah from the LORD:

9"This is what the LORD Almighty said: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.

9“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another.

10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.'

10Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.

11"But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears.

11“Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing.

12They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

12They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the LORD of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them.

13"'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the LORD Almighty.

13“Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

14I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.'"

14As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.”

New International Version (NIV)

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