Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Zechariah 7

• Written 535 BC

Obedience Better than Fasting

Zechariah 7:¹ Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev,

• Timeline: 535 BC End of the 70 year exile from Judah for Daniel.
• See Timeline: 501 BC to 770 BC. Scroll to 535 BC

Zechariah 7:² when the people (Lit. they,) sent Sherezer (Or Sar-Ezer), with Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God (bêṯ-‘ēl Heb. Bethel), to pray (Or to entreat the favor of) before the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ),

Zechariah 7:³ and to ask the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ṣāḇā), and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast (Lit. consecrate myself) as I have done for so many years?”

Zechariah 7:⁴ Then the word of the Lord of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ṣāḇā) came to me, saying, ⁵ “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? ⁶ When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?

Zechariah 7:⁷ Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South (Heb. Negev) and the Lowland were inhabited?’ ”

Disobedience Resulted in Captivity

Zechariah 7:⁸ Then the word of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹ “Thus says the Lord of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ṣāḇā’):

‘Execute true justice,
Show mercy (Or lovingkindness) and compassion
Everyone to his brother.

Zechariah 7:¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
The alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart
Against his brother.’

Zechariah 7:¹¹ “But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders (Lit. gave a stubborn or rebellious shoulder), and stopped their ears (Lit. made their ears heavy) so that they could not hear.

Zechariah 7:¹² Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ṣāḇā) had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ṣāḇā).

Zechariah 7:¹³ Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts (Yᵊhōvâ ṣāḇā).

Zechariah 7:¹⁴ “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

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