CHAP. VII.
The people enquire concerning
fasting: they are admonished
to fast from sin.
1 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.
2 When Sarasar, and Rogommelech,
and the men that
were with him, sent to the
house of God, to entreat the
face of the Lord:
3 To speak to the priests of
the house of the Lord of hosts,
and to the prophets, saying:
Must I weep in note the fifth
month, or must I sanctify myself
-- --
as I have now done for
many years?
4 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:
5 When you fasted, and
mourned in the fifth and the
seventh month for these seventy
years: did you keep a fast
unto me?
6 And when you did eat
and drink, did you not eat
for yourselves, and drink for
yourselves?
7 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
toward the south, and
in the plain?
8 And the word of the
Lord came to Zacharias, saying:
9 Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, saying: Judge ye true
judgment, and shew ye mercy,
and compassion every man
to his brother.
10 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.
11 But they would not
hearken, and they turned away
the shoulder to depart:
and they stopped their ears,
not to hear.
12 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.
13 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.
14 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.
Challoner [1752], THE NEW TESTAMENT OF Our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. Translated out of the Latin Vulgat Diligently compared with the original Greek And first published by the English College of Rhemes, anno 1582. Newly revised, and corrected according to the Clementin Edition of the Scriptures. WITH ANNOTATIONS For clearing up modern Controversies in Religion, and other Difficulties of Holy Writ () [word count] [B12000].
