Zechariah 7 commentary

ZECHARIAH 7 COMMETARYEDITED BY GLE PEASE

Justice and Mercy, ot Fasting

1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev.

BARES, "In the fourth year of Darius - Two years after the series of visions, shown to him, and two years before the completion of the temple. Chisleu being December, it was the end of 518 b.c.

CLARKE, "The fourth year of Ring Darius - Two years after they began to rebuild the temple, see Zec_1:1, A.M. 3486.

The ninth month, even in Chisleu - This answers to a part of our November and December. The names of the month appear only under and after the captivity.

GILL, "And it came to pass, in the fourth year of King Darius,.... Near two years after the foundation of the temple was laid, Hag_2:10 and near two years before it was finished, Ezr_6:15 when the work was going forward, and there was a great deal of reason to believe it would be completed:

that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu: which answers to part of our October, and part of November.

HERY, "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 (Zec_7:1), in the ninth month of the fourth year of Darius, with the date of that (Zec_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; Ezr_6:14, Ezr_6:15), 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,

JAMISO, "Zec_7:1-14. II. Didactic part, seventh and eighth chapters. Obedience, rather than fasting, enjoined: Its reward.

fourth year of ... Darius two years after the previous prophecies (Zec_1:1, etc.).

Chisleu meaning torpidity, the state in which nature is in November, answering to this month.

K&D 1-3, "Zec_7:1-3 describe the occasion for this instructive and consolatory word of God, which was addressed to Zechariah in the fourth year of Darius, i.e., two years after the building of the temple was resumed, and two years before its completion, and therefore at a time when the building must have been far advanced, and the temple itself was possibly already finished in the rough. Zec_7:1. It came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of Jehovah came to Zechariah, on the fourth (day) of the ninth month, in Kislev. In this definition of the time we are surprised first of all at the circumstance, that, according to the Masoretic accentuation, and the division of the verses, the statement of the time is torn into two halves, and the notice of the year is

placed after , whilst that of the month does not follow till after ; and secondly, at the fact that the introduction of the occurrence which led to this word of

God is appended with the imperfect c. Vav rel. (vayyishlach), which would then stand in the sense of the pluperfect in opposition to the rule. On these grounds we must give up the Masoretic division of the verses, and connect the notice of the month and day in Zec_7:1 with Zec_7:2, so that Zec_7:1 contains merely the general statement that in the fourth year of king Darius the word of the Lord came to Zechariah. What follows will then be appended thus: On the fourth day of the ninth month, in Kislev, Bethel sent, etc. Thus the more precise definition of the time is only given in connection with the following occurrence, because it was self-evident that the word of God which was addressed to the prophet in consequence of that event, could not have been addressed to him before it occurred. The rendering of the words in Zec_7:2 is also a disputed point. We adopt the following: Zec_7:2. Then Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, and his people, to entreat the face of Jehovah, (Zec_7:3) to speak to the priests who were at the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, thus: Shall I weep, abstaining in the

fifth month as I have now done so many years? As Bth-l may either signify the house of God, or be the name of the town of Bethel, it may be taken either as accus. loci, or as the subject of the sentence. Against the first explanation, which is very widely spread, viz., it sent to the house of God, or to Bethel, Sharezer, etc., or they sent to the house of God Sharezer, etc., it may be argued not only that the prophet, in order to make

himself intelligible, ought either to have written 'elBth-'l, or to have placed Bth-'lafter the object, but also that beeth-'eel cannot be shown to have been ever applied to the temple of Jehovah, and that it would have been altogether out of place to speak of sending to Bethel, because Jehovah could not be prayed to in Bethel after the captivity.

We must therefore take bth-'l as the subject, and understand it as denoting the population of Bethel, and not as a name given to the church of the Lord, since there are

no conclusive passages to support any such use, as bthYehvh only is used for the church of God (see at Hos_8:1), and here there could be no inducement to employ so unusual an epithet to denote the nation. A considerable number of the earlier inhabitants of Bethel had already returned with Zerubbabel, according to Ezr_2:28 and Neh_7:32; and, according to Neh_11:31, the little town appears to have been soon rebuilt. The inhabitants of this city sent an embassy to Jerusalem, namely Sharezer and

Rechem-Melech, and his men. The omission of the nota accus. has indeed been adduced as an objection to this interpretation of the names as the object, and the names

have been therefore taken as the subject, and regarded as in apposition to Bth-l: Bethel, namely Sharezer and Rechem, etc., sent; that is to say, two men are mentioned in connection with Bethel, who are supposed to have acted as leaders of the embassy. But there is something so harsh and inflexible in the assumption of such an apposition

as this, that in spite of the omission of the we prefer to regard the names as accusatives. The name Sharezer is evidently Assyrian (cf. Isa_37:38; Jer_39:3, Jer_39:13), so that the man was probably born in Babylonia.

The object of sending these men is given first of all in general terms: viz., %!, lit., to stroke the face of Jehovah, - an anthropomorphic expression for affectionate entreaty (see at Psa_119:58), and then defined more precisely in Zec_7:3, where it is stated that they were to inquire of the priests and prophets, i.e., through their mediation, to entreat an answer from the Lord, whether the mourning and fasting were to be still

kept up in the fifth month. Through the clause the priests are described as belonging to the house of Jehovah, though not in the sense supposed by Kliefoth, namely, because they were appointed to serve in His house along with the Levites, in the place of the first-born, who were the possession of Jehovah (Num_3:41; Deu_10:8-9). There is no such allusion here; but the meaning is simply, as the persons in the temple, who by virtue of their mediatorial service were able to obtain an answer from Jehovah to a question addressed to Him in prayer. The connection with the prophets

points to this. The question ( is defined by the inf. absol. +, as consisting in weeping or lamentation connected with abstinence from food and drink, i.e., with

fasting. On this use of the inf. abs., see Ewald, 280, a; +, to abstain (in this

connection from meat and drink), is synonymous with in Zec_7:5. (/: these

how many years, for which we should say, so many years. Kammeh suggests the idea

of an incalculably long duration. , in this and other similar combinations with numerical data, has acquired the force of an adverb: now, already (cf. Zec_1:12, and

Ewald, 302, b). The subject to ( is the population of Bethel, by which the men had been delegated. The question, however, had reference to a subject in which the whole community was interested, and hence the answer from God is addressed to all the people (Zec_7:5). So far as the circumstances themselves are concerned, we can see from Zec_7:5 and Zec_8:19, that during the captivity the Israelites had adopted the custom of commemorating the leading incidents in the Chaldaean catastrophe by keeping fast-days

in the fifth, seventh, fourth, and tenth months. In the fifth month (Ab), on the tent day, because, according to Jer_52:12-13, that was the day on which the temple and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed by fire in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, though the seventh day of that month is the date given in 2Ki_25:8-9 (see the comm. in loc.). In the

seventh month, according to Jewish tradition, they fasted on the third day, on account of the murder of the governor Gedaliah, and the Judaeans who had been left in the land

(2Ki_25:25-26; Jer_51:1.). In the fourth month Tammuz) they fasted on the ninth day, on account of the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the eleventh year of Zedekiah (Jer_39:2; Jer_52:6-7). And lastly, in the tenth month, a fast was kept on the tenth day on account of the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar on that day, in the ninth year of Zedekiah (2Ki_25:1 and Jer_39:1).

(Note: The later Jews kept the 9th Ab as the day when both the first and second temples were destroyed by fire; and in Mishna Taanit iv. 6, five disasters are enumerated, which had fallen upon Israel on that day: viz., (1) the determination of God not to suffer the fathers to enter the promised land; (2 and 3) the destruction of the first and second temples; (4) the conquest of the city of Bether in the time of Bar-Cochba; (5) the destruction of the holy city, which Rashi explains from Mic_3:12 and Jer_26:18, but which others refer to the fact that Turnus Rufus (either Turannius Rufus or T. Annius Rufus: cf. Schttgen, Horae hebr. et talm. ii. 953ff., and Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums, ii. 77) ploughed over the foundation of the temple. Also, on the seventeenth of the fourth month (Tammuz), according to Mishna Taan. iv. 6, five disasters are said to have befallen Israel: (1) the breaking of the tables of the law (Exodus 32); (2) the cessation of the daily sacrifice in the first temple from the want of sacrificial lambs (cf. Jer_52:6); (3) the breach made in the city walls; (4) the burning of the law by Apostemus; and (5) the setting up of the abomination, i.e., of an idol, in the temple (Dan_11:31; Dan_12:13). Vid., Lundius, Codex talm. de jejunio,Traf. ad Rhen. 1694, p. 55ff.; also in abstract in Mishna ed. Surenhus. ii. pp. 382-3.)

The question put by the delegates referred simply to the fasting in the fifth month, in commemoration of the destruction of the temple. And now that the rebuilding of the temple was rapidly approaching completion, it appeared no longer in character to continue to keep this day, especially as the prophets had proclaimed on the part of God, that the restoration of the temple would be a sign that Jehovah had once more restored His favour to the remnant of His people. If this fast-day were given up, the others would probably be also relinquished. The question actually involved the prayer that the Lord would continue permanently to bestow upon His people the favour which He had restored to them, and not only bring to completion the restoration of the holy place, which was already begun, but accomplish generally the glorification of Israel predicted by the earlier prophets. The answer given by the Lord through Zechariah to the people refers to this, since the priests and prophets could give no information in the matter of their own accord.

The answer from the Lord divides itself into two parts, Zec_7:4-14 and ch. 8. In the first part He explains what it is that He requires of the people, and why He has been obliged to punish them with exile: in the second He promises them the restoration of His favour and the promised salvation. Each of these parts is divisible again into two sections, Zec_7:4-7 and Zec_7:8-14; Zechariah 8:1-17 and Zec_8:18-23; and each of these sections opens with the formula, The word of Jehovah (of hosts) came to me (Zechariah), saying.

CALVI, "There is no vision here, but the answer which Zechariah was commanded to give to the messengers of the captives: for he says that some had been sent from Chaldea to offer sacrifices to God, and at the same time to inquire whether the fast, which they had appointed when the city was taken and destroyed,

was to be observed. But there is some ambiguity in the words of the Prophet, for it is doubtful whether the two whom he names, even Sherezer and Regem-melech, together with the others, had sent the messengers of whom mention is made, or they themselves came and brought the message from the captives. But this is a matter of no great moment. As to the question itself, I am disposed to adopt their view, who think that these two came with their associates to Jerusalem, and in the name of them all inquired respecting the fast, as we shall hereafter see. (68) The Jews think that these were Persian princes; but this opinion is frivolous. They are thus accustomed to draw whatever occurs to the glory of their own nation without any discretion or judgment, as though it had been an object much desired by the Jews, that two Persian should go up to the temple. But there is no need here of a long discussion; for if we regard the Prophets design, we may easily conclude that these were Jews who had been sent by the exiles, both to offer gifts and to inquire about the fast, as the Prophet tells us. The sum of the whole then is, that Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their companions, came to the temple, and that they also asked counsel of the priests and Prophets, whether the fast of the fifth month was still to be observed.

It must first be observed, that though all had not so much courage as to return to their own country as soon as leave was given them, they were not yet gross despisers of God, and wholly destitute of all religion. It was indeed no light fault to remain torpid among the Babylonians when a free return was allowed them; for it was an invaluable kindness on the part of God to stretch forth his hand to the wretched exiles, who had wholly despaired of a return. Since then God was prepared to bring them home, such a favor could not have been neglected without great ingratitude. But it was yet the Lords will that some sparks of grace should continue in the hearts of some, though their zeal was not so fervid as it ought to have been. The same sloth we see in the present day to be in many, who continue in the filth of Popery; and yet they groan there, and the Lord preserves them, so that they do not shake off every concern for religion, nor do they wholly fall away. All then are not to be condemned as unfaithful, who are slothful and want vigor; but they are to be stimulated. For they who indulge their torpor act very foolishly; but at the same time they ought to be pitied, when there is not in them that desirable alacrity in devoting themselves to God, which they ought to have. Such an instance then we see in the captives, who ought to have immediately prepared themselves for the journey, when a permission was given them by the edicts of Cyrus and Darius. They however remained in exile, but did not wholly renounce the worship of God; for they sent sacred offerings, by which they professed their faith; and they also inquired what they were to do, and showed deference to the priests and Prophets then at Jerusalem. It hence appears, that they were not satisfied with themselves, though they did not immediately amend what was wrong. There are many now, who, in order to exculpate themselves, or rather to wipe away (as they think) all disgrace, despise Gods word, and treat us with derision; nay, they devise crimes with which they charge us, with the view of vilifying the word of the Lord in the estimation of the simple. But the Prophet shows that the captives of whom he speaks, though not so courageous as they ought to have been were yet true servants of God; for they sent sacrifices to the temple, and also wished to hear and to learn what they were to

do.

2.When Bethel sent Sherezer and Regem-melech and its men to entreat the face of Jehovah, and to speak to the priests who were

3.over the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Shall I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done

4.these so many years? then came the word of Jehovah of hosts to

5.me, saying, Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying,

When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh, even

6.these seventy years, fasting did ye fast to me, even to me? and when ye ate and when ye drank, were not ye yourselves the eaters

7.and ye yourselves the drinkers? Were not these the words which Jehovah proclaimed by the former Prophets, when Jehovah was inhabited and peacable, and her cities around her, and when the south and the plain were inhabited?

Bethel here means the town; and therefore its, and not his men, is the proper version; and instead of Shall I weep, the most suitable rendering would be, Shall we weep. That the inhabitants of Judea are intended, and not messengers from Babylon, is quite evident from the fifth verse, Speak to all the people of the land. Ed.

COFFMA, "This Chapter deals with a question from the Jews at Bethel about keeping a certain fast day. Zechariah 7:1-3 give the situation and state the question; and the balance of the chapter (Zechariah 7:4-14) reveals the prophet's response. Actually, this chapter is a unit with Zephaniah 8; because the prophet's answer was given in six statements. "Each statement is introduced with exact statements which indicate that the prophet's words were actually those of Jehovah."[1] The six parts of the answer are:

1. Zechariah 7:4-7

2. Zechariah 7:8-14

3. Zechariah 8:1-7

4. Zechariah 8:9-13

5. Zechariah 8:14-17

6. Zechariah 8:18-23

Only two of these responses are given in this chapter.

Zechariah 7:1

"And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of Jehovah came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chislev."

Some scholars have seized upon the unusual placement of the words, "The word of Jehovah came to Zechariah," in such a manner as to split the elements of the date in two, as an excuse for rejecting the passage, or for screaming "interpolation." Such views are the result of the prejudice that the prophet should always have followed some prescribed formula in giving the date. There is no valid reason whatever for such a prejudice, as proved by this variation from it. As the passage stands, the date is perfectly clear, as is also the truth that Zechariah was delivering God's message, not his own.

The time was ovember/December, 518 B.C., "nearly two years after the vision of Zechariah 1:7."[2] Gill dated the arrival of the delegation on "December 4,518 B.C."[3]

TRAPP, " And 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;

Ver. 1. In the fourth year of king Darius] Two years and a month after the former sermon. The word of the Lord was precious in those days. "The Lord gave the word": but it cannot be said that "great was the company of those that preached it," Psalms 68:11; during the captivity they complained that there was no more any prophets; neither any among them that knew how long their misery should last. Soon after their return God stirred them up Haggai and Zechariah; and after that Malachi; and then there was Chathimath chazon, as the Jews phrase it, a sealing up or end of prophecy. Only they had Bath-col, as they call it, a voice from heaven, sometimes, as Matthew 3:17, John 12:28. This and the pool of Bethesda only were left them as extraordinary signs of Gods love to that people. But for a punishment of their killing the prophets (as they did this Zechariah between the porch and the altar, Matthew 23:37) and stoning those that were sent unto them (as they did the other Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada), they had no more prophets till the arch-prophet and his forerunner, the Baptist, came. And now also by this long vacation of two years and a month, it appeareth that preachers were rare, and that sermons they had but seldom. either was it otherwise here in England at the first reformation; for to many churches (for want of preachers) readers were sent. Whence one of the martyrs wished that every able minister might have ten congregations committed to his charge till further provision could be made.

The word of the Lord came unto Zechariah] The Lord is said to come to Balaam, Abimelech, Laban, &c. But he never entrusted his word to these profane persons; as he did to the holy prophets, of whom it is said, as here, "The word of the Lord came unto them."

In the fourth day of the ninth month] Which answereth to our ovember. Why the precise time of the prophecies is set down - {See Trapp on "Haggai 1:1"}

BESO, "Verses 1-3Zechariah 7:1-3. The word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, &c. In this and the next chapter is contained a third and distinct revelation made to Zechariah, about two years after the former; of which the occasion and matter are as follows: A considerable progress having, by this time, been made in the rebuilding of the temple, and affairs going on pretty smoothly, the hopes of the Jewish nation began to revive, and a deputation was sent to inquire of the priests and prophets, whether it was Gods will that they should still observe the fast, which had been instituted on account of the destruction of the city and temple by the Chaldeans. To this inquiry, the prophet is directed in these chapters how to answer; and his answer is given not all at once, but, as it seems, by piece-meal, and at several times. For here are four distinct discourses that have reference to this case. In the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu This month corresponded with the latter part of our ovember and the beginning of December. When they had sent The Hebrew verb here used is in the singular number, he had sent, or one had sent: but our translators very properly interpret it plurally, by the figure termed an enallage of the number, which is often used in the Hebrew; and the Vulgate renders it in the same sense. This is understood by some to be spoken of the Jews who still remained in Chaldea; but it seems more probable that those are meant who dwelt in the towns or villages at some distance from Jerusalem. These sent unto the house of God That, is unto the temple, where the building was still carried on with success; Sherezer and Regem-melech Men of note among them; and their men Servants, or persons of less rank, who accompanied them; to pray before the Lord To offer up prayers for themselves and their friends. The temple was the only place where they could offer sacrifices and oblations, to which solemn prayers were always wont to be joined. And to speak unto the priests and prophets It was the office of the priests to resolve any doubts that might arise respecting the worship of God, or any part of his law, whether moral or ceremonial, and the people were commanded to consult them, and to act according to their determination. And since the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah were at this time residing in Jerusalem, it was proper to inquire of them, who might probably give them an immediate answer to their inquiry from God himself. Should I weep in the fifth month The fast in the fifth month was kept because in that month, answering to our month of July, the city and temple were burned by the Chaldeans, 2 Kings 25:8; in memory of which grievous judgment, the people instituted a solemn fast, which, it appears, they had observed from that time until the times here spoken of; refraining from all worldly business and pleasure, and employing themselves in the religious exercise of prayer

and humiliation: see Zechariah 12:12-14. 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.

COKE, ". When they had sent, &c. Who it was that sent appears from Zechariah 7:5 where God commands the prophet to answer all the people and the priests. The people held a fast as a mournful memorial of their subverted temple: a doubt therefore arose in their mind, after the temple began to be rebuilt, whether they should yet fast; which was a doubt of such a kind, as ought to affect both people and priest, though the people might send to consult the priests. God commands the prophet to answer for the priests, and to the priests themselves. The answer is made to those who doubt: they who doubt are called the people of the land; which appellation certainly belongs to the people dwelling in their own land, but by no means to the Jews who continued among the Chaldeans: wherefore they seem to be greatly in an error who think that Sherezer and Regem-melech were sent from Babylon to Judaea. Houbigant.

EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMETARY, ""THE SEED OF PEACE"

Zechariah 7:1-14; Zechariah 8:1-23

THE Visions have revealed the removal of the guilt of the land, the restoration of Israel to their standing before God, the revival of the great national institutions, and Gods will to destroy the heathen forces of the world. With the Temple built, Israel should be again in the position which she enjoyed before the Exile. Zechariah, therefore, proceeds to exhort his people to put away the fasts which the Exile had made necessary, and address themselves, as of old, to the virtues and duties of the civic life. And he introduces his orations to this end by a natural appeal to the experience of the former days.

The occasion came to him when the Temple had been building for two years, and when some of its services were probably resumed. A deputation of Jews appeared in Jerusalem and raised the question of the continuance of the great Fasts of the Exile. Who the deputation were is not certain: probably we ought to delete "Bethel" from the second verse, and read either "El-sareser sent Regem-Melekh and his men to the house of Jehovah to propitiate Jehovah," or else "the house of El-sareser sent Regem-Melekh and his men to propitiate Jehovah." It has been thought that they came from the Jews in Babylon: this would agree with their arrival in the ninth month to inquire about a fast in the fifth month. But Zechariahs answer is addressed to Jews in Judea. The deputation limited their inquiry to the fast of the fifth month, which commemorated the burning of the Temple and the City, now practically restored. But with a breadth of view which reveals the prophet rather than the priest, Zechariah replies, in the following chapter, upon all the fasts by which Israel for seventy years had bewailed her ruin and exile. He instances two: that of the fifth month, and that of the seventh month, the date of the murder of Gedaliah, when the last poor remnant of a Jewish state was swept away. [Jeremiah

41:2; 2 Kings 25:25] With a boldness which recalls Amos to the very letter, Zechariah asks his people whether in those fasts they fasted at all to their God. Jehovah had not charged them, and in fasting they had fasted for themselves, just as in eating and drinking they had eaten and drunken to themselves. They should rather hearken to the words He really sent them. In a passage, the meaning of which has been perverted by the intrusion of the eighth verse, that therefore ought to be deleted, Zechariah recalls what those words of Jehovah had been in the former times when the land was inhabited and the national life in full course. They were not ceremonial; they were ethical: they commanded justice, kindness, and the care of the helpless and the poor. And it was in consequence of the peoples disobedience to those words that all the ruin came upon them for which they now annually mourned. The moral is obvious if unexpressed. Let them drop their fasts, and practice the virtues the neglect of which had made their fasts a necessity. It is a sane and practical word, and makes us feel how much Zechariah has inherited of the temper of Amos and Isaiah. He rests, as before, upon the letter of the ancient oracles, but only so as to bring out their spirit. With such an example of the use of ancient Scripture, it is deplorable that so many men, both among the Jews and the Christians, should have devoted themselves to the letter at the expense of the spirit.

"And it came to pass in the fourth year of Darius the king, that the Word of Jehovah came to Zechariah on the fourth of the ninth month, Kislev. For these sent to the house of Jehovah, El-sareser and Regem-Melekh and his men, to propitiate Jehovah, to ask of the priests which were in the house of Jehovah of Hosts and of the prophets as follows: Shall I weep in the fifth month with fasting as I have now done so many years? And the Word of Jehovah of Hosts came to me: Speak now to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month, and this for seventy years, did ye fast at all to Me? And when ye eat and when ye drink, are not ye the eaters and ye the drinkers? Are not these the words which Jehovah proclaimed by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at peace, with her cities round about her, and the egeb and the Shephela, were inhabited?"

"Thus spake Jehovah of Hosts: Judge true judgment, and practice towards each other kindness and mercy; oppress neither widow nor orphan, stranger nor poor, and think not evil in your hearts towards one another. But they refused to hearken, and turned a rebellious shoulder, and their ears they dulled from listening. And their heart they made adamant, so as not to hear the Torah and the words which Jehovah of Hosts sent through His Spirit by the hand of the former prophets; and there was great wrath from Jehovah of Hosts. And it came to pass that, as He had called and they heard not, so they shall call and I will not hear, said Jehovah of Hosts, but I will whirl them away among nations whom they know not. And the land was laid waste behind them, without any to pass to and fro, and they made the pleasant land desolate."

There follow upon this deliverance ten other short oracles: chapter 8. Whether all of this decalogue are to be dated from the same time as the answer to the deputation about the fasts is uncertain. Some of them appear rather to belong to an earlier date,

for they reflect the situation, and even the words, of Haggais oracles, and represent the advent of Jehovah to Jerusalem as still future. But they return to the question of the fasts, treating it still more comprehensively than before, and they close with a promise, fitly spoken as the Temple grew to completion, of the coming of the heathen to worship at Jerusalem.

We have already noticed the tender charm and strong simplicity of these prophecies, and there is little now to add except the translation of them. As with the older prophets, and especially the great Evangelist of the Exile, they start from the glowing love of Jehovah for His people, to which nothing is impossible; they promise a complete return of the scattered Jews to their land, and are not content except with the assurance of a world converted to the faith of their God. With Haggai Zechariah promises the speedy end of the poverty of the little colony; and he adds his own characteristic notes of a reign of peace to be used for hearty labor, bringing forth a great prosperity. Only let men be true and just and kind, thinking no evil of each other, as in those hard days when hunger and the fierce rivalry for sustenance made every ones neighbor his enemy, and the petty life, devoid of large interests for the commonweal, filled their hearts with envy and malice. For ourselves the chief profit of these beautiful oracles is their lesson that the remedy for the sordid tempers and cruel hatreds, engendered by the fierce struggle for existence, is found in civic and religious hopes, in a noble ideal for the national life, and in the assurance that Gods Love is at the back of all, with nothing impossible to it. Amid these glories, however, the heart will probably thank Zechariah most for his immortal picture of the streets of the new Jerusalem: old men and women sitting in the sun, boys and girls playing in all the open places. The motive of it, as we have seen, was found in the circumstances of his own day. Like many another emigration for religions sake, from the heart of civilization to a barren coast, the poor colony of Jerusalem consisted chiefly of men, young and in middle life. The barren years gave no encouragement to marriage. The constant warfare with neighboring tribes allowed few to reach gray hairs. It was a rough and a hard society, unblessed by the two great benedictions of life, childhood and old age. But this should all be changed, and Jerusalem filled with placid old men and women, and with joyous boys and girls. The oracle, we say, had its motive in Zechariahs day. But what an oracle for these times of ours! Whether in the large cities of the old world, where so few of the workers may hope for a quiet old age sitting in the sun, and the childrens days of play are shortened by premature toil and knowledge of evil; or in the newest fringes of the new world, where mens hardness and, coarseness are, in the, struggle for gold, unawed by reverence for age and unsoftened by the fellowship of childhood, -Zechariahs great promise is equally needed. Even there shall it be fulfilled if men will remember his conditions-that the first regard of a community, however straitened in means, be the provision of religion, that truth and whole-hearted justice abound in the gates, with love and loyalty in every heart towards every other.

"And the Word of Jehovah of Hosts came, saying":-

1. "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: I am jealous for Zion with a great jealousy, and with great anger am I jealous for her."

2. "Thus saith Jehovah: I am returned to Zion, and I dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the City of Troth, [Isaiah 1:26] and the mountain of Jehovah of Hosts the Holy Mountain."

3. "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: Old men and old women shall yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand, for fullness of days; and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in her streets."

4. "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: Because it seems too wonderful to the remnant of this people in those days, shall it also seem too wonderful to Me?-oracle of Jehovah of Hosts."

5. "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: Lo! I am about to save My people out of the land of the rising and out of the land of the setting of the sun; and I will bring them home, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be to Me for a people, and I will be to them for God, in troth and in righteousness."

6. Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: Strengthen your hands, O ye who have heard in such days such words from the mouth of the prophets, ot merely since the day when the House of Jehovah of Hosts was founded: the sanctuary was to be built! For before those days there was no gain for man, and none to be made by cattle and neither for him that went out nor for him that came in was there any peace from the adversary, and I set every mans hand against his neighbor. But not now as in the past days am I towards the remnant of this people-oracle of Jehovah of Hosts. For I am sowing the seed of peace. The vine shall yield her fruit, and the land yield her increase, and the heavens yield their dew, and I will give them all for a heritage to the remnant of this people. And it shall come to pass, that as ye have been a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing! Be not afraid, strengthen your hands!

7. "For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: As I have planned to do evil to you, for the provocation your fathers gave Me, saith Jehovah of Hosts, and did not relent, so have I turned and planned in these days to do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah. Be not afraid! These are the things which ye shall do: Speak truth to one another; truth and wholesome judgment decree ye in your gates; and plan no evil to each other in your hearts, nor take pleasure in false swearing: for it is all these that I hate-oracle of Jehovah."

"And the Word of Jehovah of Hosts came to me, saying":-

8. "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall become to the house of Judah joy and gladness and happy feasts. But love ye truth and peace."

9. "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: There shall yet come peoples and citizens of great cities; and the citizens of one city will go to another city, saying: Let us go to

propitiate Jehovah, and to seek Jehovah of Hosts! I will go too! And many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek Jehovah of Hosts in Jerusalem and to propitiate Jehovah";

10. "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: In those days ten men, of all languages of the nations, shall take hold of the skirt of a Jew and say, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

PARKER, "Fasting and Feasting

Zechariah 7 , Zechariah 8

It is not enough to fast That may be a trick; there may be a way of doing it which robs it of all its virtue and of all its significance. God takes our ceremonies to pieces, and says aloud, What is the meaning of all thisyour church-going and hymn-singing, and apparently decent observance of religious ordinances? Is it in reality unto me, or is it unto yourselves? Fasting is not postponed feasting. Yet this is what it has been turned into many times. Fasting has become a process by which we have got ready for eating. We have kept, as it were, on one side all the things we have abstained from, and then, when the fasting day was over, we transferred the whole of them to the table, and gorged ourselves with the very things we had fasted from. That is not fasting. When you fast from your bread, you must give your bread away"Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry?" Fasting is not to lock the cupboard where the bread Isaiah , and to say, We shall not want you to-day, but tomorrow about this time we shall be prepared for the feast. o, the loaf must be given away, and there must not be left one crust in the house. When we feast the poor, we truly fast ourselves. God will not have any other fasting. As for church-going, what is the meaning of it? Is it to relieve the tedium of a dull night? Is it to hear something that will titillate the senses or momentarily please the fancy? Is it to avoid something at home? Or does it express the spirit of adoration, the necessity of the soul"s immortality? Is it a coming to God because he is God? Is it worship, or a form of entertainment? The Lord thus searches into our ceremonies and says, What do they mean? So also with our feasting: the criticism of God is not partial: the judgment of heaven attends our banqueting, and asks questions whilst the foaming goblet is in our hands.

"And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?" ( Zechariah 7:6).

But, O thou loving God, thou art also our Creator, and are we not so made that we cannot get away from ourselves? The Lord answers, Yes, you are so made; but you forget there is a second creation, a miracle called incarnation, and following upon that a sacrament called Pentecost, the Whittide of the Spirit"s descent, so that a man shall be himself, yet no longer himself, yea, another self; God will give him another heart. If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is not his old self one whit, but a new creature, with new aspirations, new necessities, new desires, with the restlessness which leads to contentment, with the ambition that despises the constellations

because they are too small for its religious capacity. You are right when you say you cannot get away from yourselves; your prayers are selfish unless you take great heed to them; but if you be rooted in Christ, living branches in the living Vine, why then you shall perform this miracle of being yourself and yet not yourself; of the earth, yet of the heaven; standing upon the earth, yet having a celestial citizenship and franchise.

Is the Lord contented either with fasting or feasting? o. Fasting and feasting are parts of a process. They are nothing in themselves. Do not think you are going to heaven because you are total abstainers; do not imagine you are going to heaven because you are winebibbers and gluttons; do not suppose that any ordinance has in itself as such any virtue; it is but typical, symbolical, indicative, a finger pointing to the Lamb, the Life, the Divine. If you look at the index-finger, and do not follow the direction which it indicates, the looking at the finger will do nothing for you. What will God have? He never changes; his exactions or requirements are always the same, and are always moral. He does not want clever men, brilliant men, startling men; he wants something that every Prayer of Manasseh , woman, and child can produce: he is the God of humanity, and not the God of human eccentricity. Hence we have universal terms, lines that touch the horizon; they are moral appeals and judgments. Thus:

"Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother: and 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" ( Zechariah 7:9-10).

That does not require any learned exposition. These are the claims that establish the inspiration of the Bible and the authority of Christ"s kingdom in the world. The Bible will have nobody oppressed. Wherever the Bible sees any one who is helpless, it sends the whole Church down to him; though the Church be engaged in ringing bells and observing sacraments, and doing all manner of official or mechanical work, the Bible voice says, Halt! There is a man outside who needs you: men first, and your ceremonies afterwards. Why do not men yield to the spirit of the Bible? When they discuss the Bible, why do they not attack its central citadel? Why do they go about striking little lights, and trying to set fire to its outposts? Here is a book that wants justice, mercy, honesty, purity, peace, brotherhood. That Bible you cannot overturn. Clever men can do wonderful things with the chronology of the Bible and the external relations of biblical history; but the worst man that ever lived, though he be clever with the cleverness of a thousand unbelievers, can say nothing against this, "What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" That is the Bible; that is the inspired Bible; that is eternal franchise of redeemed man. Oh, if the critics, the word-splitters, and the word-mongers would confine themselves to what the Bible wants really and vitally to be at, namely, the redemption, the regeneration, the sanctification and glorification of the image of God in Prayer of Manasseh , infidelity would be suffocated; infidelity could not live in that air, it would die and be forgotten. Ministers and churches are not set up to find food for infidels; it is not

their function to say, ow here is a difficulty, and there is an impossibility, and yonder is something we cannot explain. Let these things alone; you have a book that says, "Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother." Will you tear that book to pieces, will you turn your back upon that document? Love it, repeat it, teach it to your children, bind it on your frontlets, write it on the doorposts of your house, and thus help the incoming of the reign of the Son of man.

The Bible establishes a great brotherhood. It does not found itself on municipal lines, which have such an amazing fascination for certain state mechanicians. Only get something founded upon municipal lines, and the world will enter upon halcyon days. othing of the kind. Get society established on household lines, on family lines, on home lines, and society will be secured in all that is of value, in permanence, dignity, and utility. God will have a house, it is called the Father"s house; he will have a family, it is called the whole family in heaven, and on earth. Where is the dividing line? ay, where? We may have made one, we are fond of delimitations of frontiers and the marking of boundaries, but see to it that we do not begin to delimit the frontier between time and eternity. What if time and eternity belong to one another, and swing together in heavenly music and harmony? God will have the house, the family, the home, the brotherhood; and he will have this because Jesus is the Son of man. O think of man with this outcomethe Son of man! There is a creed that wants us to worship Humanity, with a capital H, but that humanity is too filmy, impalpable, vague; it is not the humanity that is present, but the humanity that is past, and the humanity that is to come, that is to be worshipped; but the humanity that is past is by so much dead, and the humanity that is to come is not born, so that when we want to concentrate our worship upon this humanity, with an infinite H, the heart says, Beyond is what we want! ame that anonymous figure flitting before the mind"s eye in outlinewhat is that? And we say, That is the Son of Prayer of Manasseh , concrete, personal, individual, Christly. The heart says, Let him enter; it is enough, he fills up the spaces of the soul, as the tide fills all the caves and inner places, and levels with liquid reconciliation all the ruggedness of the crag, and rock; let him come, we belong to him, and he belongs to us. When he comes, will he have any other law than this? one. Sometimes in mood of mind as if in intense and desperate haste he totalises the whole command of God, and says, It is but twofold: thou shalt love the Lord, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyselfthe Old Testament rewritten, without supplement, with a new ink, red as the blood of the heart of the Son of God.

This law having been laid down, and insisted upon by moral appeal, what came of it?

"They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear" ( Zechariah 7:11).

They acted like restive horses or restive oxen. "Pulled away the shoulder" because the yoke chafed it. Men do thus, and then blame Providence for the results. Men never say, We have disobeyed God, and therefore these things have come upon us.

Man will have his own way, and would still enjoy the peace, favour, and blessing of God; and God in heaven will not have that arrangement. Man wants to be law-maker and law-breaker; man wants to do just what he pleases to do, and expects everything to be according to his mind and taste at last. The earth will not help him. He says, You must grow something yourself for me this year; I am not going to sow your furrows with seed. Come now, whilst I slumber you grow me some corn! And the earth says, o; obedience before harvest, toil before wealth; thou shalt work for thy bread, and work honestly, and then it shall be bread unleavened with a sense of indolence or injustice. Know then that you cannot be both God and man; understand that at the very start of life you must be under law. You can pull away the shoulder, you can put your fingers into your ears and not hear the law, but the law is still there. A man can close his eyes and say, Behold, at midday it is midnight. Who is to be believed, the fool who has shut his eyes or the sun that lights the firmament with the blessing of his glory? When men begin to say that they are guilty and that God is innocent, they have brought about this ruin, and God would have brought about peace and righteousness; when common sense rules our thinking we shall get into law and order, and afterwards into harmony and peace. We must be rigorous, we must be severe with ourselves; we must say whenever there is something wrong in the way of life, We did this: now when did we do it? how did we do it? Shall I blame somebody else, or shall I blame myself? Always be severe with your own soul. We have no title to be severe with other men until we have made our own standing sure before God.

It is interesting to observe how society was constituted before the building of the temple:

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. For before these days there was no hire for Prayer of Manasseh , nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour" ( Zechariah 8:9-10).

That was how society went before the temple was built. A neglected temple always means a ruined society. These words are not to be applied locally or parochially; they express an eternal and unchangeable principle. A neglected God is a frowning heaven; a frowning heaven is a desolated earth. We must more and more insist upon the importance of the religious spirit in its relation to policy and commerce and agriculture, and the whole mechanism and build and meaning of society. Unless we cultivate our own spirituality to a high degree we may soon be tempted to forego this argument, or allow ourselves to be victimised into the belief that it is not an argument, but a sentiment. The first thing which the Christian man has to do is to keep up his spirituality to the very highest point. By keeping up spirituality I mean the cultivation of that insight which sees more than surface, more than Song of Solomon -called phenomena; that penetrating insight that sees behind all these things a Spirit, a Providence, ruling, moulding, and directing all things. We walk by faith, not by sight: Lord, increase our faith! We see nothing as it really is; the reality

is beyond the appearance. Why be satisfied with the door? Smite it that it may fly open, and let the opening door be an invitation to enter and partake of the hospitality of God.

Always in Biblical history when men turned away from God, God turned away from them: "Therefore it has come to pass: Therefore I scattered them with a whirlwind among all nations: he that honoureth me I will honour, he that despiseth me I will lightly esteem." This is not arbitrary, this is not the changeable rule of a changeable court; this is simply the utterance of an eternal necessity. The sun says, He that will not have me shall have darkness and death. Is the sun cruel? ay, the sun is clement and pitiful by announcing that fact; the sun offers its dower of light and warmth and comfort. So when we speak in Gospel words about the wicked being driven away in his wickedness, and about man neglecting to build the temple, and therefore having no harvest to reap, we are not delivering the arbitrary decrees of some fancy-created Jove; we are announcing the law of the universe, whoever made it.

What comes after the building of the temple? This:

"For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew" ( Zechariah 8:12).

Certainly; the heavens and the earth are one: if one member suffer all the members suffer with it. When the earth is wrong there is a thrill of pain all through the system to which it belongs. It is a little earth, but touch the body at any point, and instantly you communicate with the brain; and so when even this little earth sinned its first sin and damned itself in the sight of God, there went up through all the system to which it belongs a shock of agony; yea, it touched the Lord, it brought him to our aid. Let me tell business men that they cannot have any real success unless they are profoundly religious. Appearances are often to the contrary. Appearances amount to nothing. We cannot take in the case within the limits of three years or thirty years; we must look upon the whole field-space and upon the whole time-space, and this is written at the root of all things: A man cannot neglect God and be really rich. He may have heaps of money, but he has not wealth; he is not the owner of the wealth, the wealth is his owner; he is not proprietor, he is slave. He has locked himself up in his own gold-chest, and there he famishes as if he were a beggar. His soul is fat who makes the lives of others pleasant; he is strong who shares his strength with the weak.

These are solid doctrines to rest uponGod calling for judgment; God approving the moral, the righteous, and the true; God connecting his heaven with his earth, and God"s heaven shrouding itself in frowns when God"s earth rushes into sin and selfishness. This is the economy in which we live. We can pull out the shoulder, chafe against the bars of the cage, but the cage is there, and we cannot escape. Much better surrender, obey; seek the appointed way to peace, which is the way of the Cross, the way of Calvary, the way of that wonder which is called by this namenone noblerthe Atonement. Do not define it, but receive it in its largeness of reconciliation and hospitality and love. Oh, fall down before it, and say, "Lord, I

believe, help thou mine unbelief."

PETT, "Verses 1-6Questions About Fasting (Zechariah 7:1-6).

There may be a contrast intended here between those who had come from Babylon seeking news about the Branch, bringing gold and silver for his crown, who had had the joy of participating in a prophetic acting out of His crowning, and these people who had come from Bethel (or Babylon) simply concerned as to whether they needed to keep on fasting now that the Temple was nearly built.

The first revealed hearts of faith and hope, the second were self-seeking aggrandisement and self-saisfaction. However, in both cases the promise is given that a new Temple will be built (Zechariah 6:12; Zechariah 8:3; Zechariah 8:9), both are called on to hear the voice of God and obey it (Zechariah 6:15; Zechariah 7:8-14; Zechariah 8:16), both have in mind the the return of exiles and the nations coming to Zion to participate in the blessings of the new age (Zechariah 6:13; Zechariah 6:15; Zechariah 8:3-8; Zechariah 8:20-23). God does not limit His blessing to the wholly worthy.

Zechariah 7:1

And it happened in the fourth year of King Darius that the word of YHWH came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chislev.The timing of this incident is precisely dated in order to stress the historicity of the event. Chislev is the Babylonian name for the ninth month. King Darius was the king of Persia.

PETT, "Verses 1-23Further Prophecies of Zechariah (Zechariah 7:1 to Zechariah 8:23)

These prophecies occur approximately two years after the previous ones demonstrating that Zechariahs ministry continued. It would appear that the Temple is at least partly built and functioning.

AALYSIS OF THE SECOD SECTIO.

This second section (Zechariah 7:1 to Zechariah 8:23) divides up as follows:

Introduction (Zechariah 7:1-3). Then came the word of the LORD of Hosts to me saying --- (Zechariah 7:4). And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying --- (Zechariah 7:8). And the word of the LORD of Hosts came saying --- (Zechariah 8:1). And the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me saying -- (Zechariah 8:18).I DEPTH AALYSIS OF Zechariah 7-8.

a Introduction - the arrival of enquirers about the fasts which were in remembrance

of the circumstances connected with the fall of Jerusalem (Zechariah 7:1-3).a YHWH dismisses their fasts as hypocritical and calls on them to hear the words of the prophets (Zechariah 7:4-7).b YHWH calls on them rather to live truly with a genuine concern for peoples needs, and not to overlook the fact that it was because their fathers failed to hear the prophets and do this that the land had become desolate (Zechariah 7:8-14).b YHWH declares His deep concern for Jerusalem. He will return and live in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem will be called the city of truth and its mountain the Holy Mountain (compare Isaiah 2:1-4). It will be filled with people dwelling securely and He will bring back the exiles. And because His Temple has been rebuilt they will live in peace and prosper for He now purposes to do good for Jerusalem as long as they live truly with a genuine concern for peoples needs and are open and honest with each other (Zechariah 8:1-17).a YHWH declares that the fasts of the past will become feasts of joy, and the nations will flock to Jerusalem to entreat Gods favour because they know that He is with His people (Zechariah 8:18-23).ote how in a questions are raised about the fasts and God condemns their keeping of them as hypocritical, and in the parallel the fasts will become feasts and will result in blessing for the nations. In b the call is to live truly with a genuine concern for peoples need, reminding them that the failure to do this had brought desolation, and in the parallel the call is to live truly with a genuine concern for peoples needs, and then everything will be restored.

WHEDO, "Verses 1-3Occasion of the prophetic utterance, Zechariah 7:1-3.

1. Fourth year 518 B.C. (compare Zechariah 1:1; see on Haggai 1:1).

The ninth month See on Haggai 2:10, and Hastingss Dictionary of the Bible, article Time. The last date mentioned (Zechariah 1:7) was nearly two years earlier. In this same month two years before Haggai had delivered two messages of promise (Haggai 2:10-23). The order of the words and the construction in Hebrew are peculiar; therefore many are inclined to omit 1b as a later addition and to connect 1a with Zechariah 7:2 so as to read, And it came to pass in the fourth year of Darius that Beth-el sent.

Zechariah 7:2-3 describe the occasion which called forth the utterance. The translation of Zechariah 7:2 is uncertain; R.V. reads, ow they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to entreat the favor of Jehovah. Beth-el (R.V.), though meaning house of God (A.V.; compare Genesis 28:19) does not seem to be used of the temple. The form as well as the context require that it should be taken as the name of the well-known town and sanctuary of the northern kingdom, about ten miles north of Jerusalem (see on Amos 4:4), to which some exiles had returned (Ezra 2:1; Ezra 2:28). But is it in the nominative or in the accusative (of direction)? Should it be translated Beth-el sent, or he sent to Beth-el? The latter is improbable, for why should anyone send to Beth-el in the postexilic period, when Jerusalem was the only recognized religious center? If the text is correct Beth-

el must be taken as the subject in the sense of men of Beth-el (so R.V.). If so, Sharezer and Regem-melech would be the object; the community in Beth-el sent these two men. Then the phrase his men (English versions read incorrectly the plural their) becomes peculiar, for the singular pronoun refers ordinarily to only one individual. This difficulty was evidently felt by the Revisers, for they place in the margin as an alternative, ow they of Beth-el, even Sharezer, had sent Regem-melech and his men. This may be a more accurate reproduction of the Hebrew, but Sharezer sounds peculiar in apposition to they of Beth-el. Hence some have thought that in the two words Beth-el and Sharezer (Isaiah 37:38) we have a corruption of what was originally a single proper name, perhaps Belsharezer, which is identical with Belshazzar (Daniel 5:1). Then Belsharezer would be the sender of Regem-melech. The former may have been some prominent citizen or official it has been suggested, though with little probability, that he is no other than Zerubbabel who, as the representative of the community, sought the advice of the prophets and priests. Others seek to remove the difficulty by taking Beth-el as the subject, Sharezer as the object, and Regem-melech not as a proper name but as an official title. ow they of Beth-el sent Sharezer, the Regem-melech (friend of the king), and his men. The title is found nowhere else. The present text, no matter how it is translated, presents difficulties. If it is emended the change to Belsharezer sent Regem-melech and his men is the most simple. Perhaps all we can say with certainty is that a delegation was sent from somewhere to consult the religious leaders, and that the coming of this delegation was the occasion of the prophets utterance.

The purpose of the sending of the emissaries was twofold: (1) To entreat the favor of Jehovah (R.V.) Literally, to stroke the face of Jehovah, and thus make him favorably inclined. The metaphor seems to have originated at a time when it was customary to stroke or embrace the image of the deity to secure the divine favor. In the general sense of entreat the favor of God or man by presents, petitions, or other means the verb is used quite commonly in the Old Testament. (2)

Speak unto the priests to the prophets Speak to is used in the sense of consult. It would seem that the two classes of religious workers possessed at this time equal authority, and that there was peace and good will between them. There is no indication of the opposition which was so prominent in the eighth century, and which appears again in the days of Malachi.

Should I weep in the fifth month o matter who was the sender, the question was asked in the name of the community (see Zechariah 7:5). The fifth month was called Ab, on the tenth day of that month the city and temple were given up to the flames (Jeremiah 52:12-13; but compare 2 Kings 25:8-9). In commemoration of this terrible calamity a public fast and mourning was held annually by the later Jews on the ninth of Ab. As the new temple approached completion, many would ask themselves whether this fast and mourning should be continued.

Separating myself Abstaining from meat and drink (Zechariah 7:5).

PULPIT, "Zechariah 7:1

In the fourth year of King Darius. This happened, then, B.C. 518, nearly two years after the visions had occurred (Zechariah 1:7). In two years more the temple was finished (Ezra 6:15), and the work of rebuilding was now proceeding vigorously; it seemed a fit opportunity for inquiring whether, in this period of comparative prosperity and success, it behoved the people to continue the fast appointed in sadder times. The word of the Lord came. This is the usual formula for introducing a revelation (Zechariah 1:1), but it is here placed in a peculiar position, dividing the date into two parts. Keil connects the last clause, which gives the day of the month, with the next verse; but this is against the traditional accentuation, and is not required by the wording of Zechariah 7:2. The prophet first gives the date generally when the word came to him, and then defines it more accurately. Chisleu; Chislev (ehemiah 1:1). This month corresponded to parts of ovember and December.

BI 1-3, "When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer, and Regemmelech, and their men to pray before the Lord

The left ones in captivity

It must be observed that though all had not so much courage as to return to their own country as soon as leave was given them, they were not yet gross despisers of God, and wholly destitute of all religion.It was indeed no light fault to remain torpid among the Babylonians when a free return was allowed them; for it was an invaluable kindness on the part of God to stretch forth His hand to the wretched exiles, who had wholly despaired of a return. Since then God was prepared to bring them home, such a favour could not have been neglected without great ingratitude. But it was yet the Lords will that some sparks of grace should continue in the hearts of some, though their zeal was not so fervid as it ought to have been. All then are not to be condemned as unfaithful, who are slothful and want vigour; but they are to be stimulated. For they who indulge their torpor act very foolishly, but at the same time they ought to be pitied, when there is not in them that desirable alacrity in devoting themselves to God which they ought to have. These men remained in exile, but did not wholly renounce the worship of God; for they sent sacred offerings, by which they professed their faith: and they also inquired what they were to do, and showed deference to the priests and prophets then at Jerusalem. It hence appears, that they were not satisfied with themselves, though they did not immediately amend what was wrong. There are many now, who, in order to exculpate themselves, or rather to wipe away (as they think) all disgrace, despise Gods word, and treat us with derision. (John Calvin.)

Religious beliefs and religious services

I. Religious beliefs that are right. There are three beliefs implied in this commission entrusted to Sherezer.

1. The efficacy of prayer. They were sent to pray before the Lord, or, as in the margin, to intreat the face of the Lord. That men can obtain by prayer to the Supreme Being what they could not obtain without it, is one of the fundamental and distinctive faiths of humanity.

2. In the intercession of saints. These men were sent to pray before the Lord, not

merely for themselves but for others.

3. The special ability of some men to solve the religious questions of others. This Sherezer and Regemmelech appealed 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? They wanted a certain religious question answered, and they appealed to a certain class of religious men who they believed had the power to do so.

II. Religious services that are wrong. The Jews had performed religious services; they had fasted, they had mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years. This was right enough so far as the form is concerned; but in spirit the service was wrong, hence here is the reproof.

1. Their services were selfish. Mark the reproof. Did ye at all fast unto Me? Was it not from selfish motives that ye did all this? Was it not with a view of obtaining My release, and securing My favour?

2. Selfish motives the Almighty had always denounced. (Homilist.)

2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord

BARES, "When they held sent unto the house of God - Rather, And Bethel sent; that is, the inhabitants of Bethel sent. The house of God is nowhere in Holy Scripture called Bethel. Bethel is always the name of the place. . The house of God is designated by historians, Psalmists, prophets, by the name, Beth-elohim, more commonly Beth-Ha-elohim, the God; or of the Lord, YHVH. Zechariah and Haggai use these names. It is not likely that the name, Beth-el, should have first been given to the house of God, when it had been desecrated by the idolatries of Jeroboam. Bethel also is, in the Hebrew order of the words, naturally the subject . Nor is there any reason why they should have sent to Bethel, since they sought an answer from God. For it would be forced to say that they sent to Bethel, in order that those at Bethel should send to Jerusalem; which is not said.

It were unnatural also that the name of the sender should not have been mentioned, when the names of persons inferior, because sent, are recorded . Bethel, in Nehemiahs time Neh_11:31, was one of the chief places of Benjamin. Two hundred twenty and

three of the men of Bethel and Ai Ezr_2:28 had returned with Zerubbabel. The answer being to the people of the land, such were doubtless the enquirers, not those still in Babylon. The answer shows that the question was not religious, though put as matter of religion. It is remarkable that, whereas in the case of those who brought presents from Babylon, the names express some relation to God, these names are singularly, the one of a parricide son of Sennacherib Isa_37:38; 2Ki_19:37, and of one, chief among the King of Babylons princes ; the other probably a secular name, the kings friend.

Osorius: I do not see why under the name of Bethel, the city so called is not understood. For since Jerusalem was not yet fortified, the Jews chose them sites in various places, where they should be less harassed. All hatred was concentrated on that city, which the neighbors wished not to be restored to its former greatness. Other cities they did not so molest. Bethel then, that is, the assembly of the city, sent messengers to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God and consult the wise there.

To entreat the face of the Lord - They wished, it seems, (so to speak) to ingratiate themselves with God with an account of their past self-humiliation, on the day when the house of God was burned by Nebuchadnezzar. In regard to God, the word is always used of entreating Him by earnest prayer .

CLARKE, "When they had sent - Sherezer and Regem-melech - To inquire whether the fasts should be continued, which they had hitherto observed on account of their ruined temple; and the reason why they inquired was, that they were rebuilding that temple, and were likely to bring it to a joyful issue.

GILL, "When they had sent unto the house of God,.... It is, in the Hebrew text, "when he sent Bethel"; which some, as Kimchi observes, take to be the name of a man that was sent along with those after mentioned; but the Targum and the Septuagint render it, "when", or "after he had sent unto Bethel": not the place so called in Jacob's time; but Jerusalem, where the temple or house of God was now building; and it may be observed, that the words are expressed in the singular number, "when he had sent" (t); and not, as we render them, "when they had sent"; and agreeably, in Zec_7:3, it is said, "should I weep", &c. as if these messengers were sent by a single person, and yet a body of people is meant; and not the captives that remained in Babylon, as most interpreters understand it; but the Jews that were returned from thence, and were in Judea, as Junius and Tremellius observe; for to them the answer is returned, and to them does the Lord by the prophet direct his speech throughout the whole chapter. The persons sent were

Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men; who these persons were is not known; they were, no doubt, principal men of the people, by whom they were sent, and the chief of the embassy, and had others with them inferior to them: part of their business at Bethel, or the house of God, was,

to pray before the Lord; that they might be directed aright, and have a proper answer returned to the question they came with. The temple at Jerusalem was the place where men used to go up to pray; see Luk_18:10.

JAMISO, "they ... sent unto ... house of God The Jews of the country sent to

the house of God or congregation at Jerusalem. The altar was long since reared (Ezr_3:3), though the temple was not completed till two years afterwards (Ezr_6:15). The priests duty was to give decision on points of the law (Deu_17:9; Mat_2:4). Beth-el is here used instead of Beth-Jehovah, because the religious authorities, rather than the house itself (designated Beth-Jehovah in Zec_7:3), are intended. The old Beth-el had long ceased to be the seat of idol-worship, so that the name had lost its opprobrious meaning. The house of the Lord is used for the congregation of worshippers headed by their priests (Zec_3:7; Hos_8:1). Maurer makes the house of God nominative to sent. Henderson makes Beth-el so.

Sherezer an Assyrian name meaning, Prefect of the treasury.

Regemmelech meaning, The kings official. These names perhaps intimate the semi-heathen character of the inquirers, which may also be implied in the name Beth-el (Hebrew for house of God), so notorious once for its calf-worship. They sent to Jehovahs house as their forefathers sent to old Beth-el, not in the spirit of true obedience.

pray before the Lord literally, to entreat the face of, that is, to offer sacrifices, the accompaniment of prayers, to conciliate His favor (1Sa_13:12).

CALVI, "He says first, that messengers were sent to entreat the face of Jehovah. Here by the word entreating or praying, the Prophet means also sacrifices. For it is certain that the Jews prayed in exile, as there could have been no religion in them had they not exercised themselves in prayer. But the mention made here is of that stated prayer, connected with sacrifices, by which they professed themselves to be Gods people. We may hence also learn, that sacrifices of themselves are of no great importance, since prayer, or calling on God, has ever the first place. Sacrifices then, and other offerings, were, as we may say, additions; (accessoria accessions;) for this command ought ever to be regarded by the faithful,

offer to me the sacrifice of praise. (Psalms 50:14.)

He says, in the second place, that messengers were sent, that they might learn from the priests and the Prophets what was to them doubtful. We hence conclude, that it was no gross dissimulation, such as is found in hypocrites who pretend to pray to God, but that there was a real desire to obey. And, doubtless, when Gods word and celestial truth are despised, there is then neither any real prayer, nor any other religious exercise; for unbelief pollutes and contaminates whatever is otherwise in its nature sacred. Whosoever then desires rightly to pray to God, let him add faith, that is, let him come to God in a teachable frame of mind, and seek to be ruled by his word. For the Prophet in telling us what was done, no doubt keeps to the method or the order observed by the captives. It was then worthy of praise that they not only were anxious to seek Gods favor by prayers and sacrifices, but that they also sought to know what was pleasing to Cod. or was it a matter of wonder that they sent to Jerusalem on this account, for they knew that that place had been chosen by God as the place from which they were to seek the right knowledge of religion. Since then Jerusalem was the sanctuary of God, the captives sent there their messengers, particularly as they knew that the priests were the ambassadors of God, and that the interpretation of the law was to be sought from their mouth. They indeed knew

that the time was not yet come when the doctrine of salvation was to be disseminated through the whole world.

But the Prophet says, that the captives not only inquired of the priests, but also of the Prophets. It hence appears, that it was a thing commonly known, that God had raised up Prophets, which he had ceased to do for a long time. For it was not without reason that Isaiah said, that God would yet speak by his Prophets, when he would again comfort his people. (Isaiah 40:1.) There had been then a mournful silence for seventy years, when no Prophets were sent forth, according to what is said in the book of Psalms,

our signs we see not, nor is there a Prophet among us. (Psalms 74:9.)

God indeed had been accustomed to lead the people as by an erected banner when they dwelt in the holy land, and Prophets continually succeeded one another in regular order, according to what the Lord had promised by Moses,

A Prophet will I raise up in the midst of thee, etc. (Deuteronomy 18:15.)

From the time then in which they had been driven into exile, while looking there on one another, they could hear no voice to encourage them with hope, until new Prophets were again raised up beyond what they expected. And it was Gods will that the Prophets should have their abode and habitation at Jerusalem, in order that he might gather the dispersed Israel; for had there been Prophets in Chaldea, many might hence lay hold of a pretext for their slothfulness: Does not God dwell in the midst of us? what need is there of undertaking a difficult and toilsome journey? we shall indeed find nothing better at Jerusalem than in this exile; for God shows that he is present with us by his Prophets. It would have therefore been a great evil to the Jews to have Prophets in their exile. But when the captives heard that the gift of prophecy appeared again in the temple, they might have called to mind what their fathers had heard from the mouth of Isaiah, and also from the mouth of Micah, from Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3, Micah 4:3.) We now perceive why Zechariah joined Prophets to priests.

But we must bear in mind what we have stated elsewhere that the prophetic was, as it were, an extraordinary office, when God took others as the ministers of his word besides the priests. For their work was sacerdotal; but God meant to condemn the priests by transferring the work of teaching to others, that is, when Prophets were taken from the common people, or from other families, and not from the Levitical tribe. It is not indeed true that all the priests were Prophets; but the office itself would not have been transferred to any other tribe, had not God thus punished the ingratitude of those who bestowed more labor on their own private concerns than on teaching the people. However this case may have been, it was an illustrious testimony of Gods favor, that Prophets at that time had again been raised up. And this fact has been added that they dwelt nowhere else but at Jerusalem, in order

to encourage the dispersed to return, and to show to them that the place had not in vain been previously chosen by God. This is the reason why the Prophet expressly says, that the Prophets, as well as the priests, were in the house or in the temple of the Lord of hosts.

The time is also mentioned, the fourth year of Darius, and the ninth month and the fourth day (69) The beginning of the year, we know, was in March; hence the month Chisleu was ovember, or a part of October and ovember, for they were wont to commence their months at the new moons. Of king Darius we have spoken elsewhere. He was not, indeed, the first Darius, the father-in-law of Cyrus, who transferred the monarchy to the Persian, but Darius the son of Hystaspes. Passed away then had the seventy years, for this, as it has been stated before, was the fourth king.

COFFMA, "Verse 2"ow they of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to entreat the favor of Jehovah, and to speak unto the priests of the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?"

"ow they of Bethel ..." Despite some questions regarding the text in this place, our version is as clear and sensible, and even more so, than any of the proposed alterations. A delegation of the returnees from Babylon, then living in Bethel, the site of the old pagan shrine where the golden calves had once been set up, are here represented as coming to Jerusalem to inquire of the prophets and priests regarding the keeping of one of the popular fast days which had been observed by the Jews for some 70 years.

The situation had been brought about by the fact that great progress was being made in rebuilding the temple; property was increasing; and there appeared to be some doubt as to the keeping of a fast day on the anniversary of the destruction of the first temple. Indeed, times had changed; a new temple was rising; and it was obviously inappropriate to keep weeping and fasting for the old one.

Their coming to Jerusalem was significant; because in that action, there lay the general acknowledgment that Jerusalem was the site of the altar where they were required to worship, and that God's will would be made known from that city.

"Sharezer and Regemmelech ..." "Sharezer is regarded as a Babylonian name, meaning `protect the king.'"[4] "Regemmelech means `king's friend'";[5] and the significance of these names points to the period of the Babylonian captivity, and shows how the old Jewish custom of naming their children with names that honored God had given place to names oriented toward the pagan land where they were captive. It was high time indeed for God to have rescued them from a land that in time would have totally corrupted them.

"Should I weep in the fifth month ..." merely means, should we continue to keep the fast day. Keil identified this as. "The fifth month (Ab) on the tenth day; because, in Jeremiah 52:12,13, that was the day in which the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed by fire."[6] It appears, however, that this one fast day was made a test case for a total of several fast days which throughout their history the Jews had insisted upon observing. Keil listed these other fast days:

1. In the seventh month and third day, a fast marked the anniversary of the murder of Godallah (2 Kings 25:25,26).

2. In the fourth month and ninth day, they commemorated the capture of Jerusalem by ebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 39:2; 52:6,7).

3. In the tenth month and tenth day, they wept and fasted for the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by ebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 39:1).

The particular fast day inquired about in this passage was that on the tenth day of the fifth month; but it is clear that whatever the judgment of the prophets might have revealed on this matter, it would also have been properly applied to all the others. The fifth day of the fifth month, remarkably, had been the anniversary of a number of disasters in Israel:

1. The decision of God not to allow the fathers to enter the promised land.

2. The destruction of the first temple.

3. The destruction of the second temple.

4. The conquest of the city of Bother in the time of Bar-Cochba.

5. The destruction of Jerusalem.[7]

ow the most important thing about all of these fasts was that God had neither commanded nor authorized any one of them! Only one day in the year, the Day of Atonement, had God commanded His people to fast; yet they had added all these others! In the times of the Pharisees, that class of bigots even fasted "twice in the week? (Luke 18:12).

At this point, we anticipate the prophet's answer, which in fact was "o!" although it was stated in the form of some six observations from which that was the obvious and mandatory deduction. The primary reason for this was that all they were doing was actually "will worship," having nothing at all to do either with what God commanded or authorized. For this reason, we strongly disagree with many of the comments founded on these passages. For example, "It shows that ... the prophets cared infinitely more for righteousness than for ritual."[8] What it actually shows is that God cared infinitely more for righteousness (which included the observances of ritual which he had commanded) than for the observance of rituals which men

themselves had invented and adopted! We shall give other examples of this in the notes on the passages.

In this series on the Minor Prophets, there have been numerous instances in which similar passages have been used to "prove" that God cares nothing for observances of his ordinances and is interested only in what is allowed to be moral or ethical. This is absolutely wrong.

"The true fasting, which is well pleasing to God, consists not in a pharisaical abstinence from eating and drinking, but in the fact THAT ME OBSERVE THE WORD OF GOD AD LIVE THEREBY.[9]This preoccupation with weeping, mourning, and fasting represented a radical change in Jewish religious life. Weeping and sorrow replaced hymns and thanksgivings; and Watts affirmed that, "The practice has survived into this century at the so-called `Wailing Wall' in Jerusalem."[10] One other thing should be noted regarding that fast the men were asking about, the tenth day of the fifth month. It is mentioned in 2 Kings 28:8ff and in Jeremiah 52:13ff; but one of them cites the seventh day, and the other the tenth day. Mitchell pointed out that:

The Babylonians entered the temple on the seventh day and profaned it until the ninth, when they set fire to it and left it to burn until the tenth." (A quotation from the Jewish scholar Rodkinson, in the Babylonian Talmud).[11]

TRAPP, "Verse 2Zechariah 7:2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD,

Ver. 2. When they had sent] They? who? ot the princes of Persia, that were now proselyted, as the vain glorious Jews (and after them Haymo and Hugo) would have it, for the honour of their nation, nor the Samaritans (as some in Theodoret held), as seeming to Judaize in part, to join Jewish ceremonies with heathenish rites; but either the Jews yet remaining in Babylon, as Calvin conceiveth (blaming them for their sloth in not returning when they might, and yet commending them for this, that they had not cast off all care of Gods sincere service), or else the whole body of the Jews returned, as Junius determineth; or, lastly, some particular man not named, who is brought in, Zechariah 7:3, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself," &c. But that may be an ordinary analogy, the singular for the plural; especially since the embassy was sent in the name of the whole congregation.

Unto the house of God] ot to Bethel, as the Septuagint translateth here, nor from Bethel (as the Chaldee), though that is better than the former, and more likely; but, to the house of God, that is, to the temple, which was now well nigh finished; and that gave occasion to the question here propounded.

Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men] That is, their train: for they were men of rank and fashion; as it was fit they should be in such a weighty employment. And here the Septuagint, by their corrupt translating of the text, have caused a strange coil among those that strive to defend them. It is said that they translated against their will; and therefore what can we expect from them but slippery doing? It is most sure that the translation of theirs which we now have, is full of errors; and that they pervert various clear prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, and have occasioned many mistakes, being themselves many times grossly mistaken, as here; unless they did it wilfully. Some learned men think that the Septuagint that we have now, is not theirs. It was burned by Dioclesian (as some hold) in the library of Alexandria, or (as others) by Julius Caesar, when he burnt Serapion.

To pray before the Lord] Heb. to entreat the face of the Lord, sc. by prayers and sacrifices in the most solemn sort. The Hebrew properly signifieth to weary the Lord with prayers, to seize upon him with utmost importunity, to give him no rest until he yield, to urge him (as they did the prophet, 2 Kings 2:17) until he be ashamed to deny, till we put him to the blush, or leave a blot in his face (as she, Luke 18:5), unless we may prevail. This must be done, especially when we are to converse with prophets about soul businesses, cases of conscience.

COSTABLE, "Verse 2-3Israelites who lived in Bethel, about10 miles north of Jerusalem (cf. Ezra 2:28; ehemiah 7:32; ehemiah 11:31), sent two representatives to ask the priests and prophets in the capital about how they should worship the Lord (cf. Malachi 1:9). The names of the two ambassadors were Babylonian suggesting that they had been born in Babylonia during the Captivity. Another view is that a Jew living in Babylon named Bethel-Sharezar (lit. house of God-protect the king), whose title was Regem-melech (lit. king"s friend) indicating his royal authority (from Darius), came with his men to pose the question. [ote: Baldwin, pp142-43.] A slightly different translation yields the view that Bethel-Sharezar sent Regem-melech and his men. Whoever these men were, they wanted to know if they should continue to weep and abstain from food (i.e, to fast), which had become traditional but which the Mosaic Law did not require. The only fast that the Mosaic Law prescribed was on the Day of Atonement (