| 1 ¶ Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev, |
| 2 when the peoplefn sent Sherezer,fnwith Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God,fn to pray before the LORD, |
| 3 and to ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?" |
| 4 ¶ Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, |
| 5 "Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh monthsduring those seventy years, did you really fast for Me--for Me? |
| 6 'When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? |
| 7 'Should you not have obeyed the words which the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the Southfn and the Lowland were inhabited?' " |
| 8 ¶ Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, |
9 "Thus says the LORD of hosts:
'Execute true justice,
Show mercy and compassion
Everyone to his brother. |
10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
The alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart
Against his brother.' |
| 11 ¶ "But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. |
| 12 "Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the LORDof hosts. |
| 13 "Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen," says the LORD of hosts. |
14 "But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate."
God desires inner spiritual reality rather than external formalism and ritual. The first two tests of faithful covenant living consisted of true justice (see Isa. 1:17; Amos 5:24) along with mercy and compassion ( Zech. 8:16-17; Micah 6:8). This should be demonstrated equally toward all, particularly their "brothers". The third test consisted of the Israelite not giving in to oppressing other people, which was a normal, accepted practice in the world of their day. God, however, frequently denounced oppression (see Amos 2:6-8; 4:1; 5:11-12, 21-24;8:4-6), particularly among "the widow,...the fatherless, the stranger, ...the poor" excerpt from David Hocking's book Visions of the Future |
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