Zechariah 7
7
A Question About Fasting. 1In the fourth year of Darius the king, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Kislev.#The fourth year of Darius…the ninth month, Kislev: December 7, 518 B.C., the last chronological heading in Zechariah. 2Bethelsarezer sent Regem-melech and his men to implore the favor of the Lord 3and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets, “Must I weep and abstain in the fifth month#Weep…fifth month: a mourning ritual commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple on the seventh day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign (ca. 587/586 B.C.; see 2 Kgs 25:8). as I have been doing these many years?” 4Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: 5Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh month#Seventh month: the time of a fast in memory of the murder of Gedaliah, the governor installed by the Babylonians after they conquered Jerusalem (see 2 Kgs 25:25; Jer 41:1–3). Seventy years: see note on 1:12. these seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?#Am 5:21. 6When you were eating and drinking, was it not for yourselves that you ate and for yourselves that you drank?
7Are these not the words which the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets,#7:7, 12] Earlier prophets: see note on 1:4. when Jerusalem and its surrounding cities were inhabited and secure, when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited? 8The word of the Lord came to Zechariah: 9Thus says the Lord of hosts: Judge with true justice, and show kindness and compassion toward each other.#Is 1:17; 58:6. 10Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident alien or the poor;#Widow…orphan…resident alien…poor: four categories of socially and economically marginalized persons. Concern for their well-being is commanded in both pentateuchal and prophetic literature. do not plot evil against one another in your hearts.#Ex 22:20–24; Dt 24:17; Jer 5:28; Mi 2:1. 11But they refused to listen; they stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears so as not to hear.#Ex 32:9; Is 48:4. 12And they made their hearts as hard as diamond#Ez 11:19. so as not to hear the instruction and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. So great anger came from the Lord of hosts: 13Just as when I called out and they did not listen, so they will call out and I will not listen, says the Lord of hosts. 14And I will scatter them among all the nations that they do not know.#Dt 4:27. So the land was left desolate behind them with no one moving about, and they made a pleasant land into a wasteland.
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Zechariah 7: NABRE
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Zecharyah 7
7
1And it came to pass in the shnat arba of Daryavesh HaMelech, that the Devar Hashem came unto Zecharyah in the fourth of the chodesh hateshi'i (ninth month), even in Kislev;
2And Beit-El had sent Sar-Etzer and Regem-Melech, and their men, to make entreaty for favor before Hashem,
3And to speak unto the kohanim which were in the Beis Hashem Tzva'os, and to the nevi'im, saying, Should I mourn in the fifth month, hinnazer (separating myself by fasting), as I have done these so many shanim?
4Then came the Devar Hashem Tzva'os unto me, saying,
5Speak unto kol Am Ha'Aretz, and to the kohanim, saying, When ye did a tzom and mourned in the fifth and seventh, even these past shivim shanah, did ye at all fast the tzom unto Me, even to Me?
6And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
7Should ye not hear the devarim which Hashem hath preached by the nevi'im harishonim, when Yerushalayim was inhabited and at ease, and the towns thereof round about her, when men inhabited the Negev and the Shefelah?
8And the Devar Hashem came unto Zecharyah, saying,
9Thus saith Hashem Tzva'os, saying, Administer mishpat emes. And let every man show chesed and rachamim to his brother;
10And oppress not the almanah, nor the yetomim, the ger, nor the aniyim; and let none of you imagine ra'ah against his brother in your lev.
11But they refused to heed, and stubbornly stiffened their shoulders, stopped up their oznayim, that they not hear.
12Yea, they made their hearts as shamir (diamond),#7:12 i.e., hard as shamir and would not yield in mishma'at (obedience) to the Torah and the devarim which Hashem Tzva'os hath sent by His Ruach#7:12 Hakodesh through the hand of the nevi'im harishonim; therefore came a ketzef gadol (great wrath) from Hashem Tzva'os.
13Therefore it is come to pass, that as He#7:13 Hashem called, and they would not hear; so they called, and I would not hear, saith Hashem Tzva'os;
14But I dispersed them with a whirlwind among kol HaGoyim which they had not known. Thus HaAretz was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned; for they laid the Eretz Chemdat#7:14 Jer 3:19 (Desired Land) desolate.
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.