Zechariah 7:8
in Zechariah 7Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the word of Jehovah came unto Zechariah, saying,
KJV
And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,
⋯
This verse in Zechariah 7
Commentary
5 notes on this verse(Verses 8 onwards) And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets.
This site's exposition
the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah
on Zechariah 7:8-10
A second word follows the first, and it turns from questioning the fast to naming what true religion actually asks: execute true judgment, show mercy and compassion to one another, and do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the stranger, or the poor. Gill and Clarke note that this is the same ethical center found elsewhere in the prophets, so the fast's failure was never a failure of ritual precision but of the justice and mercy it was meant to express. Even the final clause, let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart, reaches past outward conduct into the intention behind it.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
This occasional sermon, which the prophet preached, and which is recorded in this and the next chapter, was above two years after the former, in which he gave them an account of his visions, as appears by comparing the date of this (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
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.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Instead of quoting the former prophets, Zechariah gives the substance of their exhortations, as renewed to himself.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַֽיְהִי֙ | vayhi | and it came | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| דְּבַר־ | devar- | [the] word of | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| יְהוָ֔ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| זְכַרְיָ֖ה | zekharyah | Zechariah | H2148 → | 43 times |
| לֵאמֹֽר׃ | lemor | <to> saying | H559 → | 5305 times |
וַֽיְהִי֙and it came
vayhiH1961 →3559 times
דְּבַר־[the] word of
devar-H1697 →1440 times
יְהוָ֔הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
זְכַרְיָ֖הZechariah
zekharyahH2148 →43 times
לֵאמֹֽר׃<to> saying
lemorH559 →5305 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Zechariah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jerome, Commentary on Zechariah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.