Zechariah 7
14 verses
Zechariah records that in the fourth year of King Darius, a delegation from Bethel comes to ask the priests and prophets whether they should continue observing the fast commemorating the temple's destruction—a question about proper covenant practice after exile. The Lord directs Zechariah to respond that for seventy years the people fasted and mourned while their ancestors refused to hear the voice of the Lord and turn from their evil ways, suggesting that ritual observance divorced from genuine repentance and covenant transformation is spiritually bankrupt. The Lord declares through the prophet that when the people hear His word and turn from their wickedness, then their fasting will become celebration, and their mourning will become joy—establishing that authentic religious practice flows from transformed hearts and obedient living. Zechariah announces that this restoration requires the people to render true judgments and show mercy and compassion to one another, refusing to oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor, and desisting from plotting evil against one another. The chapter emphasizes that the Lord desires ethical transformation and justice within the covenant community far more than ritual observance, echoing the prophetic tradition from Isaiah through Malachi. In redemptive history, Zechariah's teaching connects post-exilic restoration to the ethical demands of covenant life and suggests that true worship integrates proper behavior, merciful compassion, and obedient response to the Lord's word.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
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;
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2
When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem–melech, and their men, to pray before the Lord,
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3
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?
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4
Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,
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5
Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
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6
And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
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7
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?
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8
And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,
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9
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:
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10
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.
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11
But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
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12
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.
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13
Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts:
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14
But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.
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