Zechariah 7

Text

Textual witnesses

Obedience better than fasting (7:1–7)

Verse 1

• " In the fourth year of King Darius": This happened in 518 BCE, nearly two years after the visions had occurred and after the foundation of the temple was laid. In two years more the temple was finished, and the work of rebuilding was now proceeding vigorously; it seemed a fit opportunity for inquiring whether, in this period of comparative prosperity and success, it behoved the people to continue the fast appointed in sadder times.
• "Chisleu" or "Chislev". This month corresponded to mid November until mid December in the Gregorian calendar. The word "Chisleu" means "torpidity," the state in which nature is in November, answering to this month.

  Verse 2

Verse 2 in Hebrew

Verse 2 notes

• "When they held sent unto the house of God": could be better rendered as "and Bethel sent" or "and the inhabitants of Bethel sent", because in the Hebrew order of the words, naturally the subject is 'Bethel'. In the Hebrew Bible "the house of God" is never called "Bethel", as Bethel is always a place name, whereas "the house of God" is designated by historians, Psalmists, and prophets by the name "Beth-elohim," or more commonly "Beth-ha-elohim", which are also used by Zechariah and Haggai. It is not likely that the name "Beth-el" should have first been given to the house of God, when it had been desecrated by the idolatries of Jeroboam. There is also no reason to send people to Bethel to seek an answer from God, and even more unlikely to say that they sent to Bethel, in order that those at Bethel should send to Jerusalem. Bethel, in Nehemiah's time, was one of the chief places of Benjamin. "Two hundred twenty and three of the men of Bethel and Ai" had returned from exile with Zerubbabel. The answer is given to "the people" of the land, so the enquirers are not those still in Babylon. Although put as matter of religion, the answer shows that the question was not religious. It is remarkable that, whereas in the case of those who brought presents from Babylon, the names express some relation to God, these names are singularly, the one of a parricide son of Sennacherib, "Sharezer" ;, and of one, chief among the King of Babylon's princes ; the other probably a secular name, "Regem-melech", "the king's friend".
• "To pray before the Lord": or "to entreat the face of the Lord"; in order to be directed to a proper answer for the question they came with and the temple at Jerusalem was the place where men used to go up to pray.

  Verse 3

• "And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts": Those ministered in the sanctuary, as the Targum explains it, "who offered sacrifices, etc. and who were to be consulted in matters of religion",.
• "And to the prophets": who were then in being, as Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
• "Should I weep in the fifth month?" The use of the first person singular to express a community or a people is not uncommon; here it means the Bethelites. Weeping is the accompaniment of fasting. This fast in the fifth month, the month of Ab, had been established in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The temple was burnt on the ninth or tenth of the month. The only fast-day enjoined by the Law of Moses was the great Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month, Ethanim. But the Jews added others in memory of certain national events. In mention is made of four extraordinary fasts instituted and observed during the Captivity, viz. on the ninth day of the fourth month, in memory of the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; in the fifth month, in remembrance of the burning of the temple and city; in the seventh month, in consequence of the murder of Gedaliah ; and in the tenth month, in memory of the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

  Verse 5

• "Fifth month" The original question in Zechariah 7:3 referred only to this fast; the answer embraces also another fast in seventh month appointed by human authority.
• "The seventh month": This fast was instituted in consequence of the murder of Gedaliah, B.C. 587, just seventy years ago, when the greater part of the remnant of the Jews, contrary to the prophet's warning, fled into Egypt to escape the punishment of the crime.
• "Did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" The fast they kept was not according to the command of God, but an appointment of theirs; nor was it directed to his glory; nor was it any profit or advantage to him; and therefore it was nothing to him whether they fasted or not; see Isaiah 58:3.
• "Seventy years" refers to the fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy of exile which is also cited by Daniel.

  Disobedience resulted in captivity (7:8–14)

Verse 12

• "Adamant stone": translated from Hebrew שמיר, , probably means "diamond," a very hard stone, which, according to Jerome, can 'break all metals to pieces, but to be itself broken by none'; so it is called adamas, "unconquerable".

  Jewish

• Christian