Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

Zechariah 7
⁶ And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?
⁷ Isn’t this the same message the LORD proclaimed through the prophets in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah were well populated?’”
⁸ Then this message came to Zechariah from the LORD:
⁹ “This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another.
¹⁰ Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.
¹¹ “Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing.
¹² They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the LORD of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them.
¹³ “Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
¹⁴ As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.”
Zechariah 8
¹ Then another message came to me from the LORD of Heaven’s Armies:
² “This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: My love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong; I am consumed with passion for Jerusalem!