Zechariah 7

Ver. 1.– Chisleu:] This month corresponded with the latter part of November and the beginning of December. Dr. Blayney.

Chap. VIII. ver. 3.—a city of truth.] Jerusalem shall be again the seat of truth and justice, her magistrates being restored to execute their authority there. W. Louth. Rather, “the city of the truth;” the truth, by way of eminence, or the true religion: so that Jerusalem was to be celebrated in future as the city in which the true religion particularly was professed, as “the mountain of the Lord of hosts,” meaning the mountain of the temple was to be for the residence of the Most Holy One. Dr. Blayney.

Zechariah 7:5

5.– When ye fasted &c.] When ye fasted and mourned, both in the fifth month for the temple, and in the seventh for the murder of Gedaliah, 2 Kings xxv. 25, did ye do this, even all these seventy years, out of any charge of mine? or did ye it out of any true remorse for those sins of yours, which drew down these judgments upon you; and not rather out of a sense of your own misery and sorrow? And, on the contrary, when, on your other solemn festivals, ye did eat and drink and make merry, was it out of any spiritual joy which ye had in me and my service, and not rather for your own pleasure and jollity? Bp. Hall. The sense of these two verses is much the same with that of St. Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 8; namely, that eating or abstaining from meat is in its own nature indifferent; now is it acceptable to ment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

Zechariah 7:7

7. Should ye not hear the words &c.] Or, “Are not these the words,” as in the margin. He puts them in mind of the exhortations given to them by the Prophets before the captivity. W. Lowth. This may refer to the fifth and sixth verses: Did not the former Prophets make the like declarations, concerning the inefficacy of your external observances? see Isa. lviii. 6, &c. It may also refer to the ninth verse: And did not the former Prophets insist on the supernour excellence of moral duties? see Amos v. 24; Micah vi. 8, &c. Abp. Newcome. — the south and the plain c] See the note on Jer. xvii. 26.

Zechariah 7:9

9. Execute true judgment, &c.] I have often admonished your fathers, that judgment and mercy were more acceptable to me than fasting or any external performances, and I repeat the same admonition to you of the present age. W. Lowth.

Zechariah 7:12

12.— as an adamant stone.] Boehrath shews, that this means a hard stone used to polish gems. Abp. Newcome.