Zechariah 7:5

Fifth and seventh month] The fasts were four (see Zechariah 8:19), viz. in the fourth month commemorating the fall of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39:2; Jeremiah 52:6), in the seventh month for the murder of Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:25), in the tenth month for the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39:1), and specially in the fifth month when the Temple was burned (Jeremiah 52:12). But these fasts seemed now out of place. The form remained, but the spirit was gone.

7. Rather than lay stress on these mechanical devices of religious faith, they should study the words spoken by the old prophets, such as Amos and Hosea, before the exile, before the south land was denuded of its inhabitants.

8. Most scholars omit Zechariah 7:8 : the sense is preserved. Zechariah 7:9 tells us what the former prophets said.

9, 10. Cp. Hosea 6:6; Isaiah 1:16; Micah 6:6; Jeremiah 5:21.