Zechariahchapter 7
14 verses · Zechariah · 520 to 518 BC · The Twelve
“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?
Introduction
Zechariah, The Twelve, Zechariah Overview.
Almost two years after the night of visions, a delegation came to the priests and prophets in Jerusalem with a question about a fast. The fast mourned the burning of the temple, and the people had kept it for seventy years while a new temple was now rising. Zechariah answers on the LORD's behalf, and the answer turns the question back on those who asked it. Listen for the question the LORD asks about whom the fasting was for. Listen also for how the prophet reaches back to the prophets before the exile, and for the reason he gives for the scattering.
Context
- Who
- People who had kept mourning rituals for seventy years and wanted to know when they could stop
- What
- A question from Bethel about keeping the fast of the fifth month, answered with a question about whom the fasting was for and a call to justice and mercy.
- Where
- Jerusalem, at the house of the LORD, with a delegation sent from Bethel.
- When
- The fourth day of the ninth month, Kislev, in the fourth year of Darius, about December 518 BC.
- Why
- To show that God wanted justice and compassion more than fast days, and to warn the people against repeating their fathers' refusal.
Historical context
Men come from Bethel with a practical question: should we keep weeping and fasting in the fifth month, as we have done these many years?
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The fifth-month fast marked the burning of the temple in 586 BC. The chapter also mentions the seventh-month fast, which commemorated the murder of Gedaliah, the governor Babylon left in charge, after which the last remnant fled to Egypt. Neither fast was commanded in the Law of Moses. They were invented by the exiles to mark national catastrophes.
The question is reasonable. The temple was more than half rebuilt. If the reason for the fast was going away, was the fast?
The answer does not address the calendar at all. "When ye fasted and mourned… did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" Seventy years of religious observance, and God asks whether any of it was aimed at Him.
Then He restates what the earlier prophets had asked for and what had gotten the city burned in the first place: execute true judgment, show mercy and compassion, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, or the poor, and do not plot evil against each other.
The description of the refusal is vivid, they pulled away the shoulder, like an ox shrugging off a yoke, and stopped their ears, and made their hearts like an adamant stone.
Significance
The delegation asked about liturgy and got asked about justice. That was the whole lesson of the exile compressed into one exchange.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It also warned a young community about the exact mistake their grandparents made. They were rebuilding the house where sacrifices would be offered. The generation that burned had also offered sacrifices there.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts. It carries nothing for the special Sabbaths, the festival days or the fast days, so this card names no public reading of chapter 7 and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The chapter itself turns on a practice, and the corpus names it. Rashi says the men of the second verse sent to ask whether they should still weep in the month of Av, "since the Temple had been rebuilt" (Rashi on Zechariah 7:2:1). The fast of the seventh month named in the fifth verse he identifies in four words. "That is the fast of Gedaliah" (Rashi on Zechariah 7:5:1).
How it is read
Two commentators on this chapter carry English in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Radak is quoted from the version Sefaria titles Sefaria Community Translation, which it reports as CC0. Every quotation of either is held to fifty words or fewer.
Radak reads the house of the Lord in the third verse as the place of the question. He cites the rendering of Targum Jonathan, "who were serving in the Holy Temple of the L ORD" (Radak on Zechariah 7:3:1). Rashi reads the abstaining of that verse as "To abstain from pleasure" (Rashi on Zechariah 7:3:1).
The answer asks whom the fasts were for. Rashi puts it as a question in the Lord's mouth. "Did you fast in My honor that you should be required to fast now, too?" Eating and drinking are for their own pleasure in the same way (Rashi on Zechariah 7:5:2 and 7:6:1). The cause of the fast lay in the words they refused. "They brought about your destruction, and therefore you fasted" (Rashi on Zechariah 7:7:1).
The hearts made like adamant he reads through the shamir, "A worm stronger than flint" (Rashi on Zechariah 7:12:1). The chapter closes on the exile that followed, and Rashi adds four words to the scattering. "And so I did" (Rashi on Zechariah 7:14:1).
The corpus carries 14 further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted here. Ibn Ezra on Zechariah is cited at 7:1:1, 7:2:1, 7:4:1, 7:6:1, 7:7:1, 7:8:1 and 7:11:1. Radak on Zechariah is cited at 7:1:1, 7:8:1, 7:9:1 and 7:10:1. Metzudat David on Zechariah is cited at 7:4:1, 7:9:1 and 7:10:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 22 rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here and none is quoted. The verse numbers are the corpus's own.
At 7:1 it holds Rosh Hashanah 7a:9. At 7:2 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 234:3. At 7:3 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:8 and Sifrei Bamidbar 23:1. At 7:9 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Nezikin 18:22, Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 22:23:3 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 349:6. At 7:9 to 10 it holds Shemot Rabbah 30:15.
At 7:11 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:57, Midrash Mishlei 1:13 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 16:11. It also holds Pesikta Rabbati 33:1 there. At 7:13 it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 12, Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 13 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 21. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Appendix to Sh'lach 8:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Appendix to Sh'lach 8:5 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bechukotai 3:1 there. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma, Bechukotai 2:1, Midrash Tehillim 10:2 and Midrash Tehillim 13:1 there.
At 7:14 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:45.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Zechariah 7:2:1 to 7:14:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Zechariah 7:3:1, Sefaria Community Translation, reported CC0; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Zechariah 7:1:1, 7:2:1, 7:4:1, 7:6:1, 7:7:1, 7:8:1 and 7:11:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; Radak, Radak on Zechariah 7:1:1, 7:8:1, 7:9:1 and 7:10:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Zechariah 7:4:1, 7:9:1 and 7:10:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/zechariah/7.json, the 22 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane through haftarahUsesForChapter("zechariah", 7) and festivalReadingForBook("zechariah").
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
When you fasted, was it really for me?
Zechariah 7:1-3
the fourth year of King Darius: The date, “the fourth year of King Darius”, sets the question two years after the night visions. Men sent from Bethel ask whether to “weep and fast in the fifth month”, the fast for Jerusalem's burning. The question is whether the old grief still fits the changed hour.
Zechariah 7:1
“In the fourth year of Darius - Two years after the series of visions, shown to him, and two years before the completion of the temple. Chisleu being December, it was the end of 518 b.c.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Zechariah 7:1
“Darius--two years after the previous prophecies (Zec 1:1, &c.). Chisleu--meaning "torpidity," the state in which nature is in November, answering to this month.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
sent Sharezer and Regem-melech: Bethel is Hebrew for house of God. The King James took it as the temple, and the Berean reads it as the town that sent them. Clarke said they came to ask whether the fasts for the ruined temple should continue now that it was being rebuilt.
Zechariah 7:2
“When they had sent - Sherezer and Regem-melech - To inquire whether the fasts should be continued, which they had hitherto observed on account of their ruined temple; and the reason why they inquired was, that they were rebuilding that temple, and were likely to bring it to a joyful issue.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The fast of the fifth month marked the burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, which Barnes dated from the seventh to the tenth day. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown pointed to Jeremiah 52:12-14. The question was whether a people rebuilding the temple should still mourn its loss.
Zechariah 7:3
“Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself? - “In the fifth month,” from the seventh to the tenth day, Jerusalem was in flames, fired by Nebuchadnezzar. “He burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem and every great man’s house he burnt with fire” .”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 7:3
“The tenth day of the fifth month was kept a fast, being the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem (Jer 52:12-14). They ask, Should the fast be continued, now that the temple and city are being restored? separating myself--sanctifying myself by separation, not only from food, but from all defilements (compare Joe 2:16) as was usual in a solemn fast.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zechariah 7:4-7
the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me: The LORD answers the fasting question with questions. He asks whether their fasts “for these seventy years” were “really for Me”, and whether their eating and drinking was “simply for yourselves”. He points back to the words proclaimed “through the earlier prophets” while Jerusalem was “populous and prosperous”.
Zechariah 7:4
“Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying. Upon the sending of this embassy, and upon putting this question.”
was it really for Me that you fasted?: Wesley noted that the fast of the seventh month recalled the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael. He heard the question as a charge that the people mourned their own losses more than their sin. Spurgeon saw the seeds of Pharisaism in these fasts.
Zechariah 7:5
“AFTER the Jewish people had been thoroughly cured of their idolatrous tendencies by their seventy years of captivity, they fell into another evil—they became superstitiously regardful of ceremonies but they lost the life and spirit of devotion and neglected the weightier matters of the Law. Phariseeism, in the spirit of it, had commenced, in the time of Zechariah. Great attention was paid to the formalities and externals of worship, but the vitality of godliness was unknown. The mint, the anise, the cummin of religion—these were all strictly tithed. But truth, mercy, charity, justice, were trod under foot.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 7:5
“Unto all the people - By their messengers. And seventh - For the murder of Gedaliah, slain by Ishmael. Even to me - You pleased yourselves in it, not me; you wept more for the inconveniences of the thing than the sinfulness of it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
were you not doing so simply for yourselves?: Gill applied the question to eating and drinking on the days of feasting, done simply for the people's own pleasure. He set beside it the rule Paul gave at 1 Corinthians 10:31, to eat and drink for the glory of God. The people served themselves in both.
Zechariah 7:6
“And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink,.... Either at common meals, or at their festivals: did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? merely and only for their own refreshment and pleasure, and not for the glory of God; though that ought to be the principal end in eating and drinking, 1Co 10:31.”
the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets: Barnes named Isaiah and Jeremiah as the earlier prophets, who proclaimed the words of the LORD while Jerusalem was populous and prosperous. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the question as a call to do what those prophets had said. The Negev and the foothills both belonged to Judah.
Zechariah 7:7
“Should ye “not hear” the words, or, Know ye “not the words?” The verb is presupposed in the emphatic question, as in, “Shall I, the blood of these men?” 2Sa 23:17. David omits the word “drink” for abhorrence. By the former prophets - Isaiah and Jeremiah , “when Jerusalem was dwelling abidingly,” at ease, as the whole world then was, except herself, “and the south and the low-country,” both belonging to Judah, were inhabited.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 7:7
“Should ye not hear the words--rather, "Should ye not do the words," as their question naturally was as to what they should do (Zec 7:3); "hearing" is not mentioned till Zec 7:12. The sense is, It is not fasts that Jehovah requires of you, but that ye should keep His precepts given to you at the time when Jerusalem was in its integrity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Execute true judgment: hearts made hard as adamant
Zechariah 7:8-10
the word of the LORD came to Zechariah: A second word turns to what the LORD requires: true justice, loving devotion and compassion, and no oppression of “the widow or the fatherless”. Gill and Clarke note that the same demands stand elsewhere in the prophets. The last clause reaches past outward conduct to the intention behind it.
Zechariah 7:8
“And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying. Giving him orders to repeat what the former prophets had said, and to urge the same things on the people which they had before rejected, the rejection of which had issued in their ruin.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 7:8
“Instead of quoting the former prophets, Zechariah gives the substance of their exhortations, as renewed to himself.”
Barnes traced true justice and compassion through the earlier prophets, citing Isaiah 1:17, Jeremiah 7:5 and Hosea 12:6. Barnes quoted the comment that the verse names duties to one another and assumes those owed to the LORD, as Paul does in Romans 13:9. Irenaeus quoted it as the LORD's will.
Zechariah 7:9
“Thus spake the Lord - that is, through the former prophets, for he goes on to speak of their rejection in the past. “Execute true judgment.” He retains the words of Ezekiel. The injunction itself runs throughout the prophets. “Shew mercy” (as Isa 1:17, Isa 1:23; Isa 58:6-7; Jer 7:5; Eze 18:8; Hos 12:6, etc.), that is, tender love, to all; compassion, to the unhappy. Omit no act of love, God so loves the loving. Lap.: “Like Paul to the Romans Rom 13:9, he names only the duties to the neighbor, but understands what relates to God.”
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless: Irenaeus quoted this verse with verse 9 as the will of the LORD for the people of the land. The command moves from the hand that would oppress the poor to the heart that would plot evil. Its last clause reaches evil planned in secret against one another.
Zechariah 7:10
“And Zechariah also, among the twelve prophets, pointing out to the people the will of God, says: "These things does the Lord Omnipotent declare: Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion each one to his brother. And oppress not the widow, and the orphan, and the proselyte, and the poor; and let none imagine evil against your brother in his heart." And again, he says: "These are the words which ye shall utter.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IVpatristic
Zechariah 7:11-12
refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder: The refusal takes three forms: they “turned a stubborn shoulder”, “stopped up their ears”, and “made their hearts like flint” against the law. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the stone named here was the hardest the ancient world knew. So “great anger came from the LORD of Hosts”.
Zechariah 7:11
“Such an implacable enmity to the gospel as this was to the law and the prophets was that which brought wrath to the uttermost upon the last generation of the Jewish church, 1 Thess. ii. Great sins against the Lord of hosts, whose authority is incontestable, bring great wrath from the Lord of hosts, whose power is irresistible.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
They made their hearts like flint: The Hebrew shamir is the hardest stone the people knew, which Gill found rendered diamond at Jeremiah 17:1 and Clarke took as granite or emery. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown linked the great anger from the LORD of Hosts to 2 Chronicles 36:16. Hearts of flint met great anger.
Zechariah 7:12
“Made their hearts as an adamant stone - שמיר shamir may mean the granite. This is the hardest stone with which the common people could be acquainted. Perhaps the corundum, of which emery is a species, may be intended. Bochart thinks it means a stone used in polishing others. The same name, in Hebrew, applies to different stones.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah 7:13-14
just as I had called and they would not listen: The LORD turns their refusal on them: “just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen”. The chapter closes on the scattering, “I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations”, and on the land “left desolate behind them”.
Zechariah 7:13
“Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried,.... The Lord by the former prophets called them to repentance and obedience: and they would not hear; his words, nor obey his voice: so they cried: when they were besieged in Jerusalem, and were carried captive into Babylon: and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts; so as to deliver them out of the hands of their enemies; see Pro 1:24.”
I scattered them with a whirlwind: Clarke saw the whirlwind in the swift victories of the Chaldeans, who scattered the people among the nations. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown noted that no settlers took the desolate land, so it stood waiting for the return after seventy years. Their own sin laid waste the pleasant land.
Zechariah 7:14
“I scattered them with a whirlwind - This refers to the swift victories and cruel conduct of the Chaldeans towards the Jews; they came upon them like a whirlwind; they were tossed to and fro, and up and down, everywhere scattered and confounded.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 7:14
“It was ordered remarkably by God's providence, that no occupants took possession of it, but that during the Jews' absence it was reserved for them against their return after seventy years. they laid . . . desolate--The Jews did so by their sins.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Keep studying
Studies5
Words12
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 438: “God Or Self—Which?” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book IV; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.