Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zechariah 7:5
Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh [month], even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, [even] to me?
4 7. The Answer. First Section
5. seventh month ] This fast appears to have been observed during the captivity, because in the seventh month “the murder of Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon made governor of the land, completed the calamities of Jerusalem, in the voluntary but prohibited exile to Egypt, for fear lest the murder should be avenged on them.” Pusey. See 2Ki 25:25-26; Jeremiah 41-43.
even to me ] For the emphatic repetition of the pronoun comp. Hag 1:4 and note.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Speak unto all the people of the land – They of Bethel had spoken as one man, as Edom said to Israel, Thou shalt not pass by me Num 20:18; and the men of Israel said to the Hivite; Perhaps thou dwellest in the midst of me, and how shall I make a league with thee? Jos 9:7. God gives the answer not to them only, but to all like-minded with them, all the people of the land, the whole population (in our language); as Jeremiah says, ye and your fathers, your kings and your princes and all the people of the land Jer 44:21, and, the scribe who mustered the people of the land. Jer 52:25.
When ye fasted and that, mourning – It was no mere abstinence from food (severe as the Jewish fasts were, one unbroken abstinence from evening to evening) but with real mourning, the word being used only of mourning for the dead (Gen 23:2; Gen 50:10; 1Sa 25:1; 1Sa 28:3; 2Sa 1:12; 2Sa 3:31; 2Sa 11:26; 1Ki 13:29-30; 1Ki 14:13, 1Ki 14:18; Ecc 12:5; Jer 16:4-6; Jer 22:18; (twice); Jer 25:33; Jer 34:5; Eze 24:16, Eze 24:23; Zec 12:10, Zec 12:12), or, in a few instances, , for a very great public calamity; probably with beating on the breast.
In the seventh month – The murder of Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon made governor of the land, completed the calamities of Jerusalem, in the voluntary, but prohibited exile to Egypt, for fear lest the murder should be avenged on them Jer. 4143.
Did ye at all fast unto Me, Me? – God emphatically rejects such fasting as theirs had been, as something, unutterably alien from Him, to Me, Me! Yet the fasting and mourning had been real, but irreligious, like remorse for ill-deeds, which has self only for its ground. He prepares the way for His answer by correcting the error of the question. Osorius: Ye fasted to yourselves, not to Me. For ye mourned your sorrows, not your misdeeds; and your public fast was undertaken, not for My glory, but out of feeling for your own grief. But nothing can be pleasing to God, which is not referred to His glory. But those things alone can be referred to His glory, which are done with righteousness and devotion.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth – month] This they did in the remembrance of the burning of the temple, on the tenth day of that month; and on the seventh month, on the third of which month they observed a fast for the murder of Gedaliah, and the dispersion of the remnant of the people which were with him. See Jer 41:1, and 2Kg 25:25.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Speak unto all the people, i.e. either by their messengers who came in their name, or to all the Jews that were at Jerusalem.
Of the land; by which it seems to be not the loiterers in Babylon, but the returned in Judea, that sent.
And to the priests: some of these perhaps doubted; and others might overvalue and dote on these voluntary services, and needed, as well as deserved, a reproof.
When ye fasted and mourned: who prescribed this your fast? and since you needs would, (as it was at liberty you might fast and mourn,) who was better for it? or did you do it to please me, when you displeased me by other, your sinful courses?
In the fifth month: see Zec 7:3.
And seventh; for the murder of Gedaliah, slain by Ishmael, Jer 41:1.
Even those seventy years; so many they were since Gedaliahs death to this time of inquiry, which is made now as many years after the return as Gedaliah was slain after the beginning of the captivity.
Did ye at all fast unto me? whatever was in it, there was very little in it from me, no command, no honour; as you ordered it, you pleased yourselves in it, not me; you wept more for the inconveniences of the thing than the sinfulness of it. Had you fasted to me, you would have abstained more from sin, which I forbade, than from meats, which I did not forbid.
Even to me; as if God had said, I put it once more to you, did you indeed fast to me?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Speak unto allThe questionhad been asked in the name of the people in general by Sherezer andRegemmelech. The self-imposed fast they were tired of, not havingobserved it in the spirit of true religion.
seventh monthThis fastwas in memory of the murder of Gedaliah and those with him at Mizpah,issuing in the dispersion of the Jews (2Ki 25:25;2Ki 25:26; Jer 41:1-3).
did ye . . . fast untome?No; it was to gratify yourselves in hypocriticalwill-worship. If it had been “unto Me,” ye wouldhave “separated yourselves” not only from food, but fromyour sins (Isa 58:3-7).They falsely made the fast an end intrinsically meritorious initself, not a means towards God’s glory in their sanctification. Thetrue principle of piety, reference to God, was wanting: hencethe emphatic repetition of “unto Me.” Before settlingquestions as to the outward forms of piety (however proper, as inthis case), the great question was as to piety itself; that beingonce settled, all their outward observances become sanctified, being”unto the Lord” (Ro14:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Speak unto all the people of the land,…. Of Judea, who had sent these men on this errand, and whom they represented, and in whose name they spake:
and to the priests; who were consulted on this occasion:
saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth; on the seventh or tenth day of the fifth month Ab, on account of the temple being burnt by Nebuchadnezzar:
and seventh [month]; the month Tisri, which answers to September; on the third day of this month a fast was kept on account of the murder of Gedaliah, Jer 41:1 though Kimchi says he was slain on the first day of the month; but, because that was a feast day, keeping a day for a fast on this occasion was fixed on the day following:
even those seventy years; of their captivity, during which they kept the above fasts. The Jews say w there was no fast of the congregation, or public fast, kept in Babylon, but on the ninth of Ab, or the fifth month only; and if so, other fasts here, and in Zec 8:19, must be private ones. These seventy years are to be reckoned from the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, when the city was destroyed, to the second or fourth of Darius:
did ye at all fast unto me, [even] to me? the fast they kept was not according to the command of God, but an appointment of theirs; nor was it directed to his glory; nor was it any profit or advantage to him; and therefore it was nothing to him whether they fasted or not; see
Isa 58:3.
w T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 54. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He therefore brings this charge against them, Have ye fasted to me? have ye eaten to me? as though he had said, “God regards not fastings, except they proceed from a sincere feeling and tend to a right and lawful end.” It was then the object of the Prophet to awaken the Jews, that they might not imagine that God was pacified by fasting or by any other frigid ceremonies, but that they might know that something more was required. And we see how prone mankind are to rely on external rites, and to think that they have rightly performed their duty to God when they have fasted. As then human nature labors under this disease, the Prophet is here sent to dissipate this delusion; which he does by declaring that fasting does not please God, or is acceptable to him, as though it were something meritorious, or as though there was in it any holiness.
He says first, that the word of Jehovah was given to him, that he might go to the people of the land and to the priests. We see the truth of what I have already said, that the answer was not directed to the captives, but to the very inhabitants of the land and to the citizens of Jerusalem, and for this reason, — because they thought that when the question respecting fasting was moved, the first and chief part of all religion was the subject of inquiry. Hence God, that he might strip them of this superstition, says, When ye fasted in the fifth month and in the seventh month, and during the seventy years, did ye fast to me — to me? for he has put an affix to the verb, צמתני, tsametni, and afterwards added אני, ani: as though he had said, “Was it to me that ye fasted? Shall I approve of such fasting?” There is an emphasis in the repetition, as though he had said, that there was no reason for the Jews to boast that they faithfully served God, and fully performed their duty, because they fasted twice in the year, for they had to do with that God who rejected such trifling things.
We hence learn that nothing is more preposterous than for men to judge of God’s worship according to their own notions, and to trust in themselves. It is indeed easy for us to deceive ourselves; for as we are earthly, so we may think that whatever glitters before our eyes is most acceptable to God. But the Prophet here reminds us, by one sentence, how frivolous are such self-pleasing thoughts; for God meets us with this question, “Have ye fasted to me? Are ye to be judges, and is it right for you at your pleasure to invent various modes of worship? But I remain always like myself, and not transform me according to what pleases you; for I repudiate everything of this kind.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) All the people.The question, though asked but by a few, was of interest to all the people; or the people of Bethel may have been the representatives of all the people; at all events the reply is given to the whole nation (Zec. 7:5). Though the mission came in the ninth month, no question was asked about the fast of the tenth month, but only about that of the fifth month. The reason of this appears to be, that the fast in Ab being in connection with their mourning for the destruction of the Temple, it was natural that, now the rebuilding of it had progressed so far, they should inquire whether that particular fast should be kept. The prophet, in his first reply, mentions also the fast of the 3rd of the seventh month (Tishri), which was kept in memory of the assassination of Gedaliah, which took place soon after the destruction of the Temple. The seventy years to which he refers are those between the seventh month B.C. 587 (the date of the assassination of Gedaliah) and the ninth month B.C. 518 (the date of the Bethel mission).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Zec 7:5. In the fifth and seventh month The Jews not only observed those fasts which were instituted by God himself, but likewise added others in commemoration of great calamities. The exiled Jews instituted four of these fasts; one in the fourth month, in commemoration of the breach of the wall, mentioned Jer 52:6.; one in the fifth month, in commemoration of the burning of the temple. Jer 52:12.; one in the seventh month for the murder of Gedaliah, Jer 41:2.; and one in the tenth month, in commemoration of the beginning of the siege, 2Ki 25:1. These fasts were observed not only in their captivity but likewise in Judaea, between the reigns of Cyrus and Darius the son of Hystaspes; the Jews therefore, as we have remarked, particularly inquired concerning the observation of the fast on account of the burning of the temple, because that temple was now rebuilding; for they might doubt whether it was not improper to retain it any longer, as the reason had ceased which gave rise to it; or whether the commemoration of past calamities was not of great utility to the morals of mankind. The prophet acquits himself with great address; he answers, that these days should still be observed, but in a different manner; not as days of mourning, but as days of thanksgiving; see chap. Zec 8:19 premising some very useful observations on the nature of fasts, on the causes of the national calamities, and the manner in which they ought to behave themselves in prosperity. See Grotius, and Calmet’s Dictionary on the word FASTS. Houbigant renders the last clause of this verse, Did 1 command you this fast? “Was it by my orders?to obey me? was it not rather from private motives,from sentiments of self-love, than those of true religion, and sincere purposes of amendment?” The question is proposed in opposition to their false ideas, that fasting of itself, exclusive of any corresponding graces and virtues, would be pleasing to God.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Zec 7:5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh [month], even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, [even] to me?
Ver. 5. Speak unto all the people of the land ], Not to the ambassadors only: as the cause is common, so let the answer be public; for they were all too well conceited of their external services, bodily exercises, and made much ado about a trifle, a practice of their own devising, neglecting the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith, Mat 23:23 .
And to the priests
When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month
Even those seventy years
Did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in the fifth. month. The month Ab (our August, App-51. V). The fast had already then been instituted to commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem on the tenth of Ab (Jer 52:12, Jer 52:13).
seventh month. The month Tisri (our October). The fast had already then been instituted, on the third of Tisri, to commemorate the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah. See Jer 40:8; Jer 41:1-3, Jer 41:15-18. See further notes on Zec 8:19.
even. Some codices omit this word.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
When: Isa 58:5
seventh: Zec 8:19, 2Ki 25:23, Jer 41:1-4
seventy: From the eleventh year of Zedekiah to the fourth of Darius Hystapses are just seventy years. Zec 7:3, Zec 1:12, Jer 25:11
did: Zec 7:6, Isa 1:11, Isa 1:12, Isa 58:4-6, Mat 5:16-18, Mat 6:2, Mat 6:5, Mat 6:16, Mat 23:5, Rom 14:6-9, Rom 14:17, Rom 14:18, 1Co 10:31, 2Co 5:15, Col 3:23
Reciprocal: Exo 33:4 – they mourned 2Ki 25:25 – seventh Isa 43:23 – honoured Isa 58:3 – have we fasted Jer 1:3 – in the fifth Jer 12:11 – it mourneth Jer 29:10 – after Jer 36:9 – they Dan 9:2 – to Jeremiah Hos 7:14 – they have not Hos 10:1 – an empty vine Joe 2:12 – with fasting Amo 5:25 – General Mal 1:13 – should I accept Luk 14:12 – and a Luk 18:12 – fast 1Co 11:28 – let a Tit 1:15 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:5 Speak to all the people of the land, and to the {f} priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh [month], even those seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, {g} [even] to me?
(f) For there were both of the people, and of the priests, those who doubted with regard to this controversy, besides those who as yet remained in Chaldea, and argue about it, as of one of the chief points of their religion.
(g) For they thought they had gained favour with God because of this fast, which they invented by themselves: and though fasting of itself is good, yet because they thought it a service toward God, and trusted in it, it is here reproved.