CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Zechariah 7 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/zechariah/7.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/zechariah/7-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Zechariah 7</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../zechariah/6.htm" title="Zechariah 6">◄</a> Zechariah 7 <a href="../zechariah/8.htm" title="Zechariah 8">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/zechariah/7.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the <span class="name">Lord</span> came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the <span class="name">Lord</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>by asking the priests of the house of the <span class="name">Lord</span> Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>Then the word of the <span class="name">Lord</span> Almighty came to me: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>“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? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Are these not the words the <span class="name">Lord</span> 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?’ ”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>And the word of the <span class="name">Lord</span> came again to Zechariah: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>“This is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the <span class="name">Lord</span> Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the <span class="name">Lord</span> Almighty was very angry.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>“ ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the <span class="name">Lord</span> Almighty. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/zechariah/7-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>‘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.’ ”</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.</p><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a></div></div></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="left"><a href="../zechariah/6.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Zechariah 6"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Zechariah 6" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../zechariah/8.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Zechariah 8"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Zechariah 8" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="rightbox"><div class="padright"><div id="pic"><iframe width="100%" height="860" scrolling="no" src="//biblescan.com/mpc/zechariah/7-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div></div><div id="rightbox4"><div class="padright2"><div id="spons1"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="sp1"><iframe width="122" height="860" scrolling="no" src="../sidemenubib2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></div><div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhchapnoad.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>