[Sidenote:  Zech. 7:1-6] In the fourth year of King Darius, on the fourth day of the ninth month, the city of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men, to entreat the favor of Jehovah, and to speak to the priests of the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, should I weep in the fifth month [in memory of the destruction of the temple] separating myself, as I have done these many years?  Then this word of Jehovah of hosts came to me:  Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ’When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month [when Gedaliah was murdered], even these seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, even to me?  And when ye eat and when ye drink, do ye not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

[Sidenote:  Zech. 7:7-14] Should ye not hear these words which Jehovah cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and her cities round about her, and the South Country, and the lowland were inhabited?  Execute true judgment, and show kindness and pity each to his brother; and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the resident alien nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against your brother in his heart.  But they refused to heed, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.  Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant lest they should hear the teaching, and the words which Jehovah of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets.  Therefore there came great wrath from Jehovah of hosts.  And even when I cried they would not hear, so when they cried I did not hear, saith Jehovah of hosts.  And I scattered them by a whirlwind among the nations which they did not know.  Thus the land was left desolate behind them, so that no man passed to or fro; for they made the pleasant land a desolation.

[Sidenote:  Zech. 8:1-5]
Now this word of Jehovah of hosts came to me: 
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts,
’I cherish for Zion a great jealousy,
And I am jealous for her with great indignation.’ 
Thus saith Jehovah, ’I have returned to Zion,
And will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem;
And Jerusalem shall be called, “The City of Truth;”
And the mountain of Jehovah of hosts, “The Holy Mountain.” 
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
’Old men and old women shall again sit in the broad places of Jerusalem,
Each man with his staff in his hand because of old age. 
And the streets of the city shall be full of boys,
And of girls playing in its broad places.’

[Sidenote:  Zech. 8:6-8]
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
Because it seemeth impossible to the remnant of this people,
Is it impossible for me? saith Jehovah of hosts. 
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: 
I am about to rescue my people,
From the land of the east and the land of the west,
And I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. 
And they shall be my people in truth and righteousness,
And in turn I will be their God.