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;"