Zechariah 7:1
IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF DARIUS - Two years after the series of visions, shown to him, and two years before the completion of the temple. Chisleu being December, it was the end of 518 b.c.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF DARIUS - Two years after the series of visions, shown to him, and two years before the completion of the temple. Chisleu being December, it was the end of 518 b.c.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY HELD SENT UNTO THE HOUSE OF GOD - Rather, “And Bethel sent;” that is, the inhabitants of Bethel sent. “The house of God” is nowhere in Holy Scripture called Bethel. Bethel is always the name of the place. . The “house of God” is designated by historians, Psalmists, prophets, by the name, “... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD I WEEP IN THE FIFTH MONTH, SEPARATING MYSELF? - “In the fifth month,” from the seventh to the tenth day, Jerusalem was in flames, fired by Nebuchadnezzar. “He burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem and every great man’s house he burnt with fire” .... [ Continue Reading ]
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” Numbers 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?” Joshua 9:7. God gives the an... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN YE EAT AND WHEN YE DRINK, IS IT NOT YE WHO EAT AND YE WHO DRINK? - Conversely now that, after your return, ye feast for joy, this is no religious act; ye have all the good of it, there is no thanksgiving to God. Contrary to the apostle’s saying, “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do,... [ Continue Reading ]
Should ye “not hear” the words, or, Know ye “not the words?” The verb is presupposed in the emphatic question, as in, “Shall I, the blood of these men?” 2 Samuel 23:17. David omits the word “drink” for abhorrence. BY THE FORMER PROPHETS - Isaiah and Jeremiah , “when Jerusalem was dwelling abidingly,... [ Continue Reading ]
Instead of quoting the former prophets, Zechariah gives the substance of their exhortations, as renewed to himself.... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SPAKE THE LORD - that is, through the former prophets, for he goes on to speak of their rejection in the past. “Execute true judgment.” He retains the words of Ezekiel. The injunction itself runs throughout the prophets. “Shew mercy” (as Isaiah 1:17, Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 58:6; Jeremiah 7:5; Ezek... [ Continue Reading ]
AND OPPRESS NOT - He had commanded positive acts of love; he now forbids every sort of unlove. “He that oppresseth the poor,” Solomon had said, “reproacheth his Maker. The widow, the orphan, the stranger, the afflicted” Proverbs 24:31, are, throughout the law, the special objects of God’s care. This... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THEY GAVE A BACKSLIDING SHOULDER - Like a restive animal, which would not endure the yoke, dull and stupid as the beasts: as Hosea says, “Israel slideth back like a backsliding heifer” Hosea 4:16. Nehemiah confesses the same; “they gave a backsliding shoulder and hardened their neck and would no... [ Continue Reading ]
HARDER THAN ADAMANT - The stone, whatever it be, was hard enough to cut ineffaceable characters : it was harder than flint . It would cut rocks; it could not be graven itself, or receive the characters of God. This is the last sin, obduracy, persevering impenitence, which “resisted the Holy Spirit”... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS - that is, this which God had said, “As He cried and they heard not, so shall they cry and I will not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.” God had often said this. “It shall be too late to cry for mercy, when it is the time of justice.” So Wisdom had said by Solomon; “then, that is, w... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I SCATTERED THEM - Rather, “And I will scatter them.” The saying continues what God had said that he had said, and which had come to pass. Among all nations whom they knew not. So God had repeatedly said by Jeremiah, “I will cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, ye nor your fat... [ Continue Reading ]