Zechariah 7 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Zechariah 7

A Call for Justice and Mercy

7:1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD, 3 saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

4 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: 5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? 6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? 7 Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”

8 And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” 11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.¹ 12 They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. 13 “As I² called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts, 14 “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.”

Footnotes

[1] 7:11 Hebrew and made their ears too heavy to hear
[2] 7:13 Hebrew he

Commentary

v1: Two years after the earlier word, see 1.1,7; the temple is not yet complete, Ezra 6.15.

v2-3: The question to the Lord God relates to their fasting, which is evidently a regular practice, and has been for many years. They are apparently looking for His approval of their lives.

v4-7: The response from the Lord; He does not challenge their claims; but He does challenge their devotion, "was it really for me?" He asks. Their feasting and drinking is similarly "just for yourselves." Here is a challenge to motives and priorities. It is commendable that they have continued their rituals for 70 years or more, but their ritual clearly lacked and lacks real meaning.

The Lord calls for devotion and obedience, as the earlier prophets have declared. Since their ritual is empty, there is a call to repentance. Their exile in Babylon was due to persistent disobedience, not the failure to fast or to practice other rituals.

v8-10: Specific areas to be addressed; true justice and mercy and compassion;

consider the widow the orphan, the foreigner, the poor;
do not think evil of each other.

Their actions and thoughts must match, and be pleasing to God, see 8.16-17.

v11-14: The reminder of what happened years before, and an implied warning for today;

they refused to pay attention;
stubbornly they turned their backs; and
stopped up their ears;
they made their hearts as hard as flint;
would not listen to the law of to the words the Lord Almighty had sent.

In these descriptive phrases, the prophet describes the people's disobedience. As a consequence of this, the Lord was "very angry."

As a result, the people were scattered, and the land left desolate. It is clear that persistent disobedience brings consequences. For many Jews, their persist in empty ritual.