Zechariah 7 :: New International Version (NIV)

Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting

Zec 7:1In 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.

Zec 7:2

Zec 7:2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD

Zec 7:3

Zec 7:3by 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?”

Zec 7:4

Zec 7:4Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me:

Zec 7:5

Zec 7:5“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?

Zec 7:6

Zec 7:6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?

Zec 7:7

Zec 7:7Are 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?’ ”

Zec 7:8

Zec 7:8And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah:

Zec 7:9

Zec 7:9“This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.

Zec 7:10

Zec 7:10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

Zec 7:11

Zec 7:11“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears.

Zec 7:12

Zec 7:12They 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.

Zec 7:13

Zec 7:13“ ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty.

Zec 7:14

Zec 7:14‘I 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.’ ”

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Zechariah Chapter 7 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Zechariah 7 :: New International Version (NIV)

Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting

Zechariah Chapter 7 — Additional Translations:

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