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And it came to pass in the fourth year of Daryavesh the king, that the Word of Yahuah came to Zekharyah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev,
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when Beit-El sent Sharezer and Regem-Melekh and his men to entreat the face of Yahuah,
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and to speak to the kohenim who were in the House of Yahuah of Hosts, and to the prophets, saying: “Should I weep in the fifth month and separate myself, as I have done these many years?”
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And the Word of Yahuah of Hosts came to me, saying:
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“Speak to all the people of the land and to the kohenim, saying: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, even these seventy years, fasting, did you truly fast for Me— for Me?
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And when you eat and when you drink, are you not the ones who eat, and the ones who drink?
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Are these not the Words that Yahuah proclaimed by the hand of the former prophets, when Yerushalayim was inhabited and at rest, with her cities around her, and the Negev and the Shefelah were inhabited?’”
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And the Word of Yahuah came to Zekharyah, saying:
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“Thus spoke Yahuah of Hosts, saying: ‘Execute Judgment of Truth, and practice Covenant-Faithfulness and compassion, each ish toward his brother.
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And do not oppress widow, or fatherless, or stranger, or poor. And let no ish devise evil against his brother in his heart.’
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But they refused to give attention, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and made their ears heavy so that they would not hear.
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And they made their heart like flint, so that they would not hear the Torah and the Words that Yahuah of Hosts sent by His Ruach through the hand of the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahuah of Hosts.
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And it came to pass: as He called and they would not hear, so they called and I would not hear,” says Yahuah of Hosts.
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“And I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they did not know. And the land was made desolate behind them, so that no one passed through or returned. And they made the desirable land a desolation.”