Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting
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. 2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord 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?”
4Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: 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? 6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for 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?’ ”
8And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’
11“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 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.
13“ ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. 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.’ ”
呼吁公义和怜悯
1大流士王执政第四年九月，即基斯流月四日，耶和华的话传给了撒迦利亚。 2那时，伯特利人差遣沙利色、利坚米勒及其随从去向耶和华求恩。 3他们问万军之耶和华殿里的祭司和先知：“我们还要照多年的惯例在五月哀伤、禁食吗？”
4万军之耶和华对我说： 5“你要对境内的民众和祭司说，‘这七十年来，你们在五月和七月禁食、哀伤，难道真的是为了我吗？ 6你们吃喝，难道不是为自己吃、为自己喝吗？ 7这些岂不是耶和华借从前的先知所宣告的吗？当时耶路撒冷和周围的城邑人口兴盛、繁荣，南地和丘陵都有人居住。’”
8耶和华又对撒迦利亚说： 9“万军之耶和华曾对你们的祖先说，‘要秉公行义，彼此以慈爱和怜悯相待。 10不可欺压寡妇、孤儿、寄居者和穷人，不可设阴谋彼此相害。’ 11他们却不理会，顽梗地背过身去，充耳不闻， 12心如铁石，不遵从律法，也不遵从万军之耶和华借着祂的灵指示从前的先知所说的话。因此，万军之耶和华非常愤怒。 13祂说，‘我曾呼唤他们，他们不听；将来他们呼求我，我也不听。 14我要用旋风把他们吹散到陌生的万国中，使他们的土地荒凉、杳无人迹，因为他们使美好的土地一片荒凉。’”
