Zechariah 7

Zechariah 7:1

In the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu. In the fourth day of the month of November.

VII. 2, 3. When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, And to speak unto the priests which were in the house II 2 of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? When the body of the then Jewish Church, which were returned from the captivity and planted in Judea, sent certain deputies or messengers, in the name of the whole, to offer up their religious devotions in the Temple; and to inquire of the priests of the Lord, and the prophets, concerning the anniversary observation of that fast, which they had hitherto kept in the fifth month, upon the sad remembrance of the destruction of the Temple; saying, We have hitherto duly kept this solemn fast for many years, but now we desire to be informed by you, since that the Temple is now repaired and finished, whether it be fit and requisite, that we should continue that fast of the fifth month any more, afflicting ourselves with the memory of the demolishing of that, which is now so happily re-edified.

Zechariah 7:5

When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?

When ye fasted and mourned, both in the fifth month for the Temple, and in the seventh for Gedaliah, 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 pulled these judgments upon you; and not rather out of a sense of your own sorrow and misery?

Zechariah 7:6

And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

And, contrarily, when, on your other solemn festival days, ye did eat and drink and make merry; was it out of any spiritual joy ye had in me and my service, and not rather for your own pleasure and jollity?

Zechariah 7:7

Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south of the plain?

Should ye not rather have hearkened to the words, which the Lord spake loud in your ears, by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was in her glory and prosperity, and all her daughter cities round about her; when the plains of the south parts were fully and richly inhabited? which if ye had done, this misery and desolation had not seized upon us; we had had no need of these mourning fasts.

Zechariah 7:12

Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, &c.

Yea, they wilfully hardened their hearts against the counsels given them by the Lord; and made them as hard as an adamant stone, which is utterly impierceable.

Zechariah 7:14

For they laid the pleasant land desolate.

They, by their great sins, exposed this pleasant land to utter spoil and desolation.