5 `Speak unto all the people of the land, and unto the priests, saying:
And the messenger of Jehovah answereth and saith, `Jehovah of Hosts! till when dost Thou not pity Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, that Thou hast abhorred these seventy years?'
speaking unto the priests who `are' at the house of Jehovah of Hosts, and unto the prophets, saying, `Do I weep in the fifth month -- being separated -- as I have done these so many years?'
`Why to Me the abundance of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah, I have been satiated `with' burnt-offerings of rams, And fat of fatlings; And blood of bullocks, and lambs, And he-goats I have not desired. When ye come in to appear before Me, Who hath required this of your hand, To trample My courts?
`And when ye may fast, be ye not as the hypocrites, of sour countenances, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men fasting; verily I say to you, that they have their reward.
and all, whatever ye may do -- out of soul work -- as to the Lord, and not to men,
Whether, then, ye eat, or drink, or do anything, do all to the glory of God;
for the reign of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit; for he who in these things is serving the Christ, `is' acceptable to God and approved of men.
He who is regarding the day, to the Lord he doth regard `it', and he who is not regarding the day, to the Lord he doth not regard `it'. He who is eating, to the Lord he doth eat, for he doth give thanks to God; and he who is not eating, to the Lord he doth not eat, and doth give thanks to God. For none of us to himself doth live, and none to himself doth die; for both, if we may live, to the Lord we live; if also we may die, to the Lord we die; both then if we may live, also if we may die, we are the Lord's; for because of this Christ both died and rose again, and lived again, that both of dead and of living he may be Lord.
`And all their works they do to be seen by men, and they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the fringes of their garments,
And all the heads of the forces hear -- they and the men -- that the king of Babylon hath appointed Gedaliah, and they come in unto Gedaliah, to Mizpah, even Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maachathite -- they and their men;
whenever, therefore, thou mayest do kindness, thou mayest not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory from men; verily I say to you -- they have their reward!
so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and may glorify your Father who `is' in the heavens. `Do not suppose that I came to throw down the law or the prophets -- I did not come to throw down, but to fulfill; for, verily I say to you, till that the heaven and the earth may pass away, one iota or one tittle may not pass away from the law, till that all may come to pass.
`Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: The fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth `months', are to the house of Judah for joy and for rejoicing, and for pleasant appointed seasons, and the truth and the peace they have loved.
When ye fasted with mourning in the fifth and in the seventh `months' -- even these seventy years -- did ye keep the fast `to' Me -- Me? And when ye eat, and when ye drink, is it not ye who are eating, and ye who are drinking?
And it cometh to pass, in the seventh month, come hath Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and of the chiefs of the king, and ten men with him, unto Gedaliah son of Ahikam, to Mizpah, and they eat there bread together in Mizpah. And Ishmael son of Nethaniah riseth, and the ten men who have been with him, and they smite Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with the sword, and he putteth him to death whom the king of Babylon hath appointed over the land. And all the Jews who have been with him, with Gedaliah, in Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who have been found there -- the men of war -- hath Ishmael smitten. And it cometh to pass, on the second day of the putting of Gedaliah to death, (and no one hath known,)
Lo, for strife and debate ye fast, And to smite with the fist of wickedness, Ye fast not as `to'-day, To sound in the high place your voice. Like this is the fast that I choose? The day of a man's afflicting his soul? To bow as a reed his head, And sackcloth and ashes spread out? This dost thou call a fast, And a desirable day -- to Jehovah? Is not this the fast that I chose -- To loose the bands of wickedness, To shake off the burdens of the yoke, And to send out the oppressed free, And every yoke ye draw off?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Zechariah 7
Commentary on Zechariah 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
We have done with the visions, but not with the revelations of this book; the prophet sees no more such signs as he had seen, but still "the word of the Lord came to him.' In this chapter we have,
And then in the next chapter, having searched the wound, he binds it up, and heals it, with gracious assurances of great mercy God had yet in store for them, by which he would turn their fasts into feasts.
Zec 7:1-7
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 (v. 1), in the ninth month of the fourth year of Darius, with the date of that (ch. 1:1), in the eighth month of the second year of Darius; not that Zechariah was idle all that while (it is expressly said that he and Haggai continued prophesying till the temple was finished in the sixth year of Darius; Ezra 6:14, 15), but during that time he did not preach any sermon that was afterwards published, and left upon record, as this is. God may be honoured, his work done, and his interest served, by word of mouth as well as by writing; and by inculcating and pressing what has been taught, as well as by advancing something new. Now here we have,
Zec 7:8-14
What was said v. 7, that they should have heard the words of the former prophets, is here enlarged upon, for warning to these hypocritical enquirers, who continued their sins when they asked with great preciseness whether they should continue their fasts. This prophet had before put them in mind of their fathers' disobedience to the calls of the prophets, and what was the consequence of it (ch. 1:4-6), and now here again; for others' harms should be our warnings. God's judgments upon Israel of old for their sins were written for admonition to us Christians (1 Co. 10:11), and the same use we should make of similar providences in our own day.