Zechariah 7

Some Jews were sent from Babylon to inquire of the. priests and prophets, whether they were obliged to continue the fasts that had been appointed upon the occasion of the destruction of Jerusalem and the ensuing captivity. The prophet is commanded to take this occasion of enforcing upon them the observance, of the weightier matters of the law, viz. judgment and mercy, for fear of their incurring the same calamities their fathers suffered upon their neglect of those duties. carrying 6n with good success. The tcmplo’vras tho only place where they could oflcr sacrifice, to which their solemn prayers wero always joined. (See 1 Sam. xiii. 12. Ezra vi.10.) Vcr. 3. And to speak nnto the priests which were in the house of the Lord, and to the prophets.) It was the office of the priests to resolve any doubts that might arise, and the people were commanded to consult them, and to follow their determination, (Deut. xvii. 9—11. Mal.ii. 7.) And since the prophets Haggai and Zcchariah were at this time residing at Jerusalem, it was proper to inquire of them, who might probably give them an immediate answer from God himself. Sltould I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done these so manij years?] The fast of the fifth month ^was kept, because in the fifth month, answering to our month of July, the city and temple were burnt by the Chaldeans: (2 Kings xxv. 8.) in memory of which grievous judgment, the Jews at Babylon had kept a solemn fast, from that time until now; refraining from all worldly business and pleasure, and employing themselves in the religious exercise of prayer and humiliation. (See xii. 12 — 14.) The question they now proposed was, Whether it were proper for them still to continue this fast, when the ecclesiastical and civil state was in a great measure restored, and the judgment for which they mourned was removed. Vcr. 5. Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests.] AVhat I am going to say equally concerns both priests and people. Mlien ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month.] The Jews observed four solemn fasts, in relation to the calamities that attended the captivity: two of them are mentioned in this chapter, and two in the next, ver. 19. Besides the fast in the fifth month, taken notice of ver. 3. they kept another in the seventh month, answering chiefly to onr September, in memory of the murder of Gedaliah, which happened in that month; (2 Kings xxv. 25.) whereupon all the remainder of the Jews were dispersed into several lands, and the desolation of Judca completed, (Jer. xli. 17, 18.) Even those seventy years,] Those many years mentioned ver. 3. which, if we reckon from the destruction of Jerusalem, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, to the fourth year of Darius Hystaspes, are just seventy years; as hath been observed in the note upon i. 12. Bid ye fast at all to me $ even to me?] Did you fast upon religious motives, and for your better improvement in the duties of repentance and amendment, the only true end of fasting? (Compare Rom. xiv. 6.)

Zechariah 7:1

JjLnD it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius. Sec the note upon ver. 5. ■

Zechariah 7:2

JVJien they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before the Lord. The verb in the Hebrew is in the singular number, He had sent: but our interpreters understand it plurally, by an enallage of the number, which is frequent in the Hebrew; and the Vulgar Latin interprets it to the same sense. According to this syntax, the words might be as well translated thus, When Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, had sent unto the house of God. These, probably, were men of some note among the Jews that still continued at Babylon, who either came of their own accord, or were sent by the exiles there to the tcytnple at Jerusalem, to offer up sacrifices at the altar, and make prayers for themselves and their friends in the temple, where the building was

Zechariah 7:6

And when ye did eat — did ye not eat for yourselves, &c. Ye sought your own pleasure and convenience, not my glory. The sense of these two sentences is much the same with that of St. Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 8. Meat com* mends us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse: i. e. eating, or abstaining from meat, is in its own nature indifferent, nor is it acceptable to God, any farther than it is subservient to advance the true ends of religion. The prophet first reproves the hypocrisy of their fasts, before he gives them a direct answer to the question proposed to him; which he docs, viii. 19. Vcr. 7. Shotitd ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited, &c.] Or, Are not these the words? as the margin reads. The prophet puts them in mind of those exhortations the prophets before the captivity gave them, that they may lay them to heart, and not be guilty of the same sins, for fear of incurring the same penalties. When men inhabited the south and the plain.] The south was that tract of land called the wilderness of Judea, Matt. iii. 1. part of which, or near to it, was the hill-country, mentioned Josh. xxi. 11. Luke i. 39. The LXX. here render it’Opuvfj, the hill-country. The plain is that open country which is called the plains of Jericho, 2 Kings xxv. 5. and the plain of the valley of Jericho, Deut. xxxiv. 3. and reached as far as the Salt Sea, or the lake of Asphaltitcs, called the sea of the plain, Deut. iii. 17. (Compare Jer. xvii. 2G.) Vcr. 9. Execute true judgment, and shew mercy, &c] I often put your fathers in mind, that judgment and mercy were more acceptable to me than fasting, or any external performances; (see Isa. lviii. 6,7. Jer. vii. 22 — 24.) and I repeat the same admonition to you of the present age..‘Vcr. 10. And let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.] Do not employ your thoughts in devising mischief against others, in order to put it in execution when opportunity serves. (Compare Psal. xxxvi.4. Micah ii. 1.) Vcr. 11. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder.] But your fathers refused to hearken to the admonitions of the former prophets, (ver. 12.) and are often reproved by them for their refractory temper. The metaphor is taken from oxen, that refuse to put their necks under the yoke. (See Nehcm. ix. 29. Jer. vii. 24. and the note there.)

Zechariah 7:12

Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone. So that no arguments could make any impression upon them. (Compare Ezck. xi. 9.) The same thing is expressed by men’s hearts being hardened. Therefore came there great wrath from the Lord of hosts.] See ver. 14.

Zechariah 7:13

So they cried, and I would not hear. I would not hearken to the prayers they made to me in their distress. (See Jer. xi. 11. xiv. 12. Micah iii. 4.) Vcr. 14. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not.] My anger dispersed the ten tribes like a tempest, into the distant countries of Assyria, Media, &c. from whence they never returned; and the two remaining tribes into Babylon, where they lived like exiles. God’s vengeance is often compared to a whirlwind; sec the note upon Jer. xxiii. 19. Tims the land was desolate after them, that no manpassed through nor returned.] Thero was an entire riddance made of the inhabitants of Judca, in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, (see Jer. Iii. 30.) so that the highways were desolate, as was threatened, Lev. xxvi. 22. (compare 2 Chron. xv. 5.) and the land enjoyed her sabbaths, as it is expressed 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. from that time, till their return from their captivity under Cyrus. •For they laid the pleasant land desolate.] The holy “writers often call the land of promise by the name of the pleasant land. (Sec the note upon Dan, viii. 9«)