25 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Zechariah 7 This chapter treats concerning the nature and use of certain fasts kept by the Jews, on account of the destruction of the temple, and other things; and concerning the message of the former prophets to them, and the effects of it. The occasion of the former was an embassy sent by the Jews to the priests and prophets, to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass, in the fourth year of King Darius,.... Near two years after the foundation of the temple was laid, Haggai 2:10 and near two years before it was finished, Ezra 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...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
We have done with the visions, but not with the revelations of this book; the prophet sees no more such signs as he had seen, but still "the word of the Lord came to him." In this chapter we have, I. A case of conscience proposed to the prophet by the children of the captivity concerning fasting, whether they should continue their solemn fasts...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
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; God’s prophets were not always in the spirit, and when the Word of God came to them, it was a notable day, and they marked it in their diary. I think that we, too, who are not prophets can...
John Gill - Exposition - John 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,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, And to speak 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? On that day the Jews had kept a fast to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts,.... That ministered in the sanctuary, as the Targum explains it, who offered sacrifices, c. and who were to be consulted in matters of religion, Malachi 2:7: and to the prophets who were then in being, as Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: saying, Should I weep in the fifth...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying. Upon the sending of this embassy, and upon putting this question.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the filth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? There is the point. You can fast to self. You can fast to your own pride. If we have no thought of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink,.... Either at common meals, or at their festivals: did not ye eat [for yourselves], and drink [for yourselves]? merely and only for their own refreshment and pleasure, and not for the glory of God; though that ought to be the principal end in eating and drinking, 1 Corinthians 10:31.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? If a holy feast is not kept with a view to God, it is not kept at all. It is a feast to yourselves. You have missed the mark altogether.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Should ye] not [hear] the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets,.... As Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others; suggesting that it would have been much better for them to have regarded the exhortations and instructions which the Lord sent them by his servants, which would have prevented their captivity; and so would have had no...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? Well, what was that word? Zechariah has it fresh from God, and he states it.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying. Giving him orders to repeat what the former prophets had said, and to urge the same things on the people which they had before rejected, the rejection of which had issued in their ruin.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew 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. This is what God said — most...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying,.... The same things as he had before; for the things following are ever in force, and always to be attended to, and to be regarded and preferred before anything merely ritual and ceremonial; and especially before the traditions and commandments of men, of which nature the above fasts were: Execute true...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor,.... Such as have no husband to provide for them, nor father and mother to care for them, and are in a strange land, where they have no friends or acquaintance, and are poor, and can not help themselves. Laws of this kind were frequently inculcated among the Jews; see...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But they refused to hearken,..... That is, the Jews, before the captivity, refusal to give heed to the above exhortations, and obey the voice of God in them: and pulled away the shoulder; from serving the Lord, and supporting his interest: or "they gave", or presented, "a rebellious shoulder" (f); a refractory one, that slides back, like a...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. And well there might. When...