rd

Zechariah 7

5 The true fasting. 11 The rebellion of the people is the cause of their affliction.
1.And in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came unto Zechariáh in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in aChisleu.
2.For bthey had sent unto the House of God Sharézer, and Regem mélech and their men to pray before the Lord,
3.And to speak unto the Priests, which were in the House of the Lord of hostes, and to the Prophets, saying, Should I cweep in the fifth month, and dseparate my self as I have done these so many eyears?
4.Then came the word of the Lord of hostes unto me, saying,
5.Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the fPriests, and say, When ye fasted, and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even these seventie years, did ye fast unto me? gdo I
6.And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did ye not eat hfor your selves, and drink for your selves?
7.Should ye not hear the words, which the Lord ihath cryed by the ministry of the former Prophets when Jerusalém was inhabited, and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when the South and the plain was inhabited?
8.And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariáh, saying,
9.Thus speaketh the Lord of hostes, saying, kExecute true judgement, and shewe mercie and compassion, every man to his brother,
10.And oppress not the widow, not the fatherless, the stranger nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
11.But they refused to hearken, and ipulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
12.Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the Law and the words which the Lord of hostes sent in his mSpirit by the ministry of the former Prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hostes.
13.Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cryed, and they would not hear, so they cryed, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hostes.
14.But I scattered them among all the nations, whom they knew not: thus the land was desolate nafter them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land owaste.

Notes

1-a.
Which contained part of November and part of December.
2-b.
That is, the rest of the people that remained yet in Caldea, sent to the Church at Jerusalem for the resolution of these questions, because these feasts were consented upon by the agreement of the whole Church, the one in the month, that the Temple was destroyed, and the other when Gedaliah was slain, Jer. 41.2.
3-c.
By weeping, and mourning appear what exercises they used in their fasting.
3-d.
That is, prepare myself with all devotion to this fast.
3-e.
Which was now since the time the Temple was destroyed.
5-f.
For there were both of the people, and of the Priests, which doubted as touching this controversy, besides them which as yet remained in Caldea, and reasoned of it as of one of the chief points of their religion.
5-g.
For they thought they had deserved toward God because of this fast, which they invented of themselves and thought fasting of itself be good, yet because they thought it a service towards God, and trusted therein, it is here reproved.
6-h.
Did you not eat and drink for your own commodity, and necessity, and so likewise you did abstain according to your own fantasies, and not after the prescript of my Law?
7-i.
Hereby he condemns their hypocrisy, which thought by their fasting to please God, and by such things as they invented, and in the mean season would not serve him as he had commanded.
9-k.
He shows, that they did not fast with a sincere heart, but for an hypocrisy, and that it was not done of a pure religion, because that they lacked these offices of charity, which should have declared that they were godly, Mt. 23.23.
11-l.
And would not carry the Lord’s burden, which was sweet and easy, but would bear their own, which was heavy and grievous to the flesh, thinking to merit thereby which similitude is taken of oxen, which shrink at the yoke, Neh. 9.29.
12-m.
Which declares, that they rebelled not only against the Prophets but against the Spirit of God that spoke in them.
14-n.
That is, after they were carried captive.
14-o.
By their sins whereby they provoked God’s anger.