Zechariah 1:3
1 In the eighth month of Darius’ second year, the Lord’s message came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berechiah son of Iddo: 2 “The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. 3 Therefore say to the people: The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says, ‘Turn to me,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, ‘and I will turn to you,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 4 Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has said, “Turn now from your evil wickedness.”’ But they would by no means obey me,” says the Lord. 5 “As for your ancestors, where are they? And did the prophets live forever?
Malachi 3:7
5 “I will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination; those who commit adultery; those who break promises; and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, who refuse to help the resident foreigner and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 6 “Since, I, the Lord, do not go back on my promises, you, sons of Jacob, have not perished. 7 From the days of your ancestors you have ignored my commandments and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’ 8 Can a person rob God? You are indeed robbing me, but you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and contributions! 9 You are bound for judgment because you are robbing me—this whole nation is guilty.
Notes and References
"... in the overall flow of the Book of the Twelve, Joel provides a template for repentance, along with Jonah inserting a vision of hope for repentance into the first half of the book of the Twelve where there is little optimism expressed by the prophets over human ability to repent. Joel focuses particularly on the role that priests should play in promoting penitence, but it is clear from Zechariah 7–8 that while the priests seem to be in charge of promoting lament, they are not promoting repentance, so that God will not answer them and they will not move from fasts to feasts. Thus, we see in Joel the agenda for repentance and in Zechariah 7–8 a confrontation of the priests over their lack of fulfillment of this agenda (Compare Joel 2:12–14 as “a kind of intermediate step” between the call to return in Hosea 14 and the calls in Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:7) ... This similarity between the books of Joel and Zechariah is also apparent in the other two books of Haggai-Malachi corpus. Haggai also emphasizes the need for repentance, related to a major agricultural crisis and to priests who are sacrificing for a people who are not penitent. As with Joel there is an expansion from an initial transformation on the historical level (Haggai 2:19b) to a more cosmic and eschatological level (2:20–23). Similarly, Malachi emphasizes the theme of repentance related to priests and community, with some connections to Joel in terms of inappropriate sacrifices and weeping / mourning over the altar with a lack of repentance and priestly involvement. As with the other books there is a shift to the eschatological and cosmic level in Malachi 3 ..."
Boda, Mark. J. "Penitential Priests in the Twelve" in Tiemeyer, Lena-Sofia, and Jutta Krispenz (eds.) Priests and Cults in the Book of the Twelve (pp. 51-64) Society of Biblical Literature, 2016