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Zechariah

Zechariahchapter 7

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A.When you fasted, was it really for me?vv. 1-7

1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to plead before the LORD 3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?” 4 Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying, 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’”

B.Execute true judgment — hearts made hard as adamantvv. 8-14

8 Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing. 12 They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts. 13 And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts. 14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”

Commentary on this chapter: read the Exposition
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Chapter summary

Two years later a delegation arrives from Beth-el with a practical question: should we keep the fast for the temple's destruction now that the temple is being rebuilt?

Read the rest, the context and the outline ▾

Two years later a delegation arrives from Beth-el with a practical question: should we keep the fast for the temple's destruction now that the temple is being rebuilt? God answers a deeper question than the one asked. 'When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month these seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?' Their fasting and their feasting alike were for themselves. The former prophets said it when Jerusalem was still prosperous: 'show kindness and compassion every man to his brother; and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor.' They stopped their ears and made their hearts as an adamant stone. So the whirlwind scattered them.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Zechariah — Zechariah overview

  • A. 1–7 When you fasted, was it really for me?
  • B. 8–14 Execute true judgment — hearts made hard as adamant
Top cross-references8 chapters ▾
  • Isaiah 12 verses
    • Isaiah 1:15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
    • Isaiah 1:16Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!
    • Read Isaiah 1 →
  • Zechariah 12 verses
    • Zechariah 1:1In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying:
    • Zechariah 1:12Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”
    • Read Zechariah 1 →
  • Zechariah 82 verses
    • Zechariah 8:19“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy and gladness, cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore you are to love both truth and peace.”
    • Zechariah 8:21and the residents of one city will go to another, saying: ‘Let us go at once to plead before the LORD and to seek the LORD of Hosts. I myself am going.’
    • Read Zechariah 8 →
  • 1 Corinthians 112 verses
4 more chapters this one speaks with
  • Deuteronomy 282 verses
    • Deuteronomy 28:33A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
    • Deuteronomy 28:64Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
    • Read Deuteronomy 28 →
  • Nehemiah 91 verse
    • Nehemiah 9:29You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly shrugged their shoulders; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.
    • Read Nehemiah 9 →
  • Nehemiah 11 verse
    • Nehemiah 1:1These are the words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa,
    • Read Nehemiah 1 →
  • Ezra 61 verse
    • Ezra 6:14So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.
    • Read Ezra 6 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.