By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.

David was angry because the Lord attacked Uzzah; so he called that place Perez Uzzah, which remains its name to this very day.

On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.

The descendants of Levi were recorded in the Book of the Chronicles as heads of families up to the days of Johanan son of Eliashib.

So I registered a complaint with the nobles of Judah, saying to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?

Since man’s days are determined, the number of his months is under your control; you have set his limit and he cannot pass it.

This very day, standing in Nob, they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain – at the hill of Jerusalem.

Then the guard cries out: “On the watchtower, O sovereign master, I stand all day long; at my post I am stationed every night.

When you summon her for divorce, you prosecute her; he drives her away with his strong wind in the day of the east wind.

Night and day it will burn; its smoke will ascend continually. Generation after generation it will be a wasteland and no one will ever pass through it again.

Kill all her soldiers! Let them be slaughtered! They are doomed, for their day of reckoning has come, the time for them to be punished.”

By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.

I came to the exiles at Tel Abib, who lived by the Kebar River. I sat dumbfounded among them there, where they were living, for seven days.

So I said to them, What is this high place you go to?’” (So it is called “High Place” to this day.)

In my zeal, in the fire of my fury, I declare that on that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old.

“Go to Bethel and rebel! At Gilgal rebel some more! Bring your sacrifices in the morning, your tithes on the third day!

On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, who fill the house of their master with wealth taken by violence and deceit.

In King Darius’ fourth year, on the fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah.

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and forceful people lay hold of it.