Zechariah 7

In the fourth year of King Darius, on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev, a message from the LORD came to Zechariah.

1And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu;

NoteDarius is Darius I, king of the Persian Empire, which then ruled Judah; his fourth year was 518 BC. After the exile the Jews dated events by the reigning foreign king, since Judah no longer had kings of its own. Chislev was the ninth month of the Hebrew year, falling in our November–December.

2The people had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to the house of God to ask the LORD for his favor.

2When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD,

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is compressed and genuinely disputed. It can be read as "Bethel sent Sharezer", Bethel being a town about twelve miles north of Jerusalem, or as a single personal name, "Bethel-sharezer." Sharezer and Regem-melech are Babylonian-style names, the kind borne by families who had spent a generation in exile. "To ask the LORD for his favor" renders a Hebrew idiom whose literal sense is "to soften the face of the LORD," that is, to seek a favorable ruling. The "house of God" is the temple in Jerusalem, at this date still half-rebuilt.

3They were to ask the priests at the house of the LORD of Hosts, and the prophets, this question: "Should I keep weeping in the fifth month and setting myself apart by fasting, the way I have done for so many years now?"

3And to speak unto the priests which were in the house 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?

NoteThe fast of the fifth month marked the burning of the temple and the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC. It was not commanded in the law of Moses; it was a custom the exiles had taken up, and the question here is a practical one about whether it still applies now that the temple is going up again. The King James "separating myself" means abstaining from food. "LORD of Hosts" is a title meaning the LORD who commands the armies of heaven; "hosts" is an old English word for armed forces drawn up for battle. "The LORD of Hosts" is a title for God as commander of the armies of heaven.

4Then a message from the LORD of Hosts came to me. He said:

4Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying,

5"Say this to all the people of the land and to the priests: 'For these seventy years, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and the seventh month, were you really fasting for me? For me at all?

5Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 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?

NoteThe seventh-month fast marked the murder of Gedaliah, the governor the Babylonians appointed over the survivors left in Judah after Jerusalem fell. His killing ended the last scrap of local self-rule and sent many of the remaining people fleeing to Egypt. The "seventy years" is the standard round figure for the length of the exile, counted either from the fall of Jerusalem or from the first deportation.

6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just eating and drinking for yourselves?

6And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7Should you not listen to the words the LORD announced through the earlier prophets, back when Jerusalem and the towns around it were full of people and doing well, and people still lived in the dry southern country and in the western foothills?'"

7Should 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 and the plain?

Note"The south" is the Negev, the dry grazing country running south from Judah; "the plain" is the Shephelah, the belt of low hills between the central highlands and the coastal plain. Naming both is a way of saying the whole country, edge to edge, was settled and working. The "former prophets" are those who spoke before the exile (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and the rest) whose warnings had by Zechariah's day become old written words rather than living voices.

8Another message from the LORD came to Zechariah. He said:

8And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying,

9"This is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'Judge people honestly and fairly. Show kindness and mercy to one another.

9Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

Note"Execute true judgment" is courtroom language: give honest verdicts, take no bribes, do not tilt a case toward the powerful party. Behind "mercy and compassions" stand two Hebrew words, one for the loyal kindness members of a community owe each other, the other for the gut-level pity a parent feels for a child.

10Do not take advantage of the widow, the child with no father, the foreigner, or the poor. And do not plan harm against one another in your hearts.'

10And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

NoteThe widow, the fatherless child, the foreigner and the poor are a standard set in Hebrew law: the four kinds of people with no male head of household or clan to press their case, and therefore the easiest in that society to cheat with no consequences. The "stranger" is not a passing traveler but a foreigner settled permanently among Israelites without land of his own.

11But they refused to pay attention. They turned a stubborn shoulder and plugged their ears so they would not hear.

11But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

Note"Pulled away the shoulder" is a farming image, an ox shrugging its neck sideways out from under the yoke instead of taking the harness.

12They made their hearts as hard as flint stone, so they would not have to hear the law, or the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.

12Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

Note"Adamant" in 1611 English meant the hardest stone known, the kind used for cutting and engraving; flint, emery and diamond were all called by the name. "The law" here is the Torah, the body of instruction given through Moses.

13"So this is what happened: just as he called out and they would not listen, so they called out and I would not listen," says the LORD of Hosts.

13Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:

14"Instead, I scattered them like a windstorm among all the nations they had never known. The land was left empty behind them, so that no one came or went through it. That is how they turned a pleasant land into a wasteland."

14But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.

Note"Pleasant land" was a stock phrase for the land of Israel, valued for its fertility. Being scattered among nations "they knew not" means deportation to places where they had no kin, no legal standing, and nobody under any obligation to take their side.