Zechariahchapter 7
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Speaks with:Isaiah 1×3Zechariah 1×2Zechariah 8×21 Corinthians 11×2Deuteronomy 28×2Nehemiah 9×2
Summary
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? 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.
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
The outline
A.When you fasted, was it really for me?vv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →B.Execute true judgment — hearts made hard as adamantvv. 8 to 14
Read vv. 8 to 14 →
The world behind this chapter
Zechariah 7The history
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?
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.
What it meant to them
The delegation asked about liturgy and got asked about justice. That was the whole lesson of the exile compressed into one exchange.
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.
Sources cited
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Zechariah 7. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.