Zechariah 7

This chapter follows the night visions and the account of the crowns in Zechariah 1–6. A new section begins with a date about two years after the one given in 1:7, and chapters 7 and 8 together form a single unit consisting of a question about fasting and its answer.

Outline

• Verses 1–3: On the fourth day of the ninth month (Chisleu) in the fourth year of King Darius, the people of Bethel send Sherezer and Regemmelech. They ask the priests and the prophets whether they should weep in the fifth month, separating themselves (abstaining and keeping body and mind pure), as they have done for many years.
• Verses 4–7: God asks in return whether the fasts they kept in the fifth and seventh months for seventy years were truly for him. He tells them to heed the words of the former prophets and reminds them of the time when Jerusalem and the surrounding land prospered.
• Verses 8–10: God requires true judgment, the showing of mercy and compassion to one another, and refraining from oppressing the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, and the poor.
• Verses 11–14: Their fathers stopped their ears and made their hearts as an adamant stone, refusing to listen. Therefore God likewise did not hear their cry but scattered them among the nations, and the land became desolate.

Key Verses

• Zechariah 7:5 "Did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" — The central question of the chapter, probing the motive behind religious practice.
• Zechariah 7:9–10 "Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother" — A summary of the point that what God desires is justice and mercy rather than ritual.

People and Places

• Zechariah: The prophet who receives the word.
• Darius: The Persian king, by whose regnal year the date is given.
• Sherezer and Regemmelech: The men sent from Bethel, who appear only in this chapter.
• Bethel: A town north of Jerusalem, from which the inquirers came.
• Jerusalem: The site of the temple, where the priests and prophets were.

Points for Reflection

• The fast of the fifth month is understood as mourning the destruction of the temple recorded in 2 Kings 25. The fast of the seventh month is commonly understood as commemorating the assassination of the governor Gedaliah. The text itself, however, does not state the reasons for either fast.
• Some translations and interpretations read "Bethel-sherezer" in verse 2 as the name of a single person.
• The "seventy years" is often read in connection with Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the length of the Babylonian exile.
• The answer to this question continues in Zechariah 8 with the promise that the fasts will be turned into joyful feasts.
• The theme of placing justice and compassion above ritual resonates with Isaiah 58, Micah 6:6–8, and Amos 5:21–23. It also connects with Matthew 23:23 in the New Testament.