The first of these four words of God contains an exposure of what might be unwarrantable in the question and its motives, and open to disapproval. Zechariah 7:4. "And the word of Jehovah of hosts came to me thus, Zechariah 7:5. Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh (month), and that for seventy years, did ye, when fasting, fast to me? Zechariah 7:6. And when ye eat, and when ye drink, is it not ye who eat, and ye who drink? Zechariah 7:7. Does it not concern the words, which Jehovah has preached through the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and satisfied, and her towns round about her, and the south country and the low land were inhabited?" The thought of Zechariah 7:6 and Zechariah 7:7 is the following: It is a matter of indifference to God whether the people fast or not. The true fasting, which is well pleasing to God, consists not in a pharisaical abstinence from eating and drinking, but in the fact that men observe the word of God and live thereby, as the prophets before the captivity had already preached to the people. This overthrew the notion that men could acquire the favour of God by fasting, and left it to the people to decide whether they would any longer observe the previous fast-days; it also showed what God would require of them if they wished to obtain the promised blessings. For the inf. absol. see at Haggai 1:6. The fasting in the seventh month was not the fast on the day of atonement which was prescribed in the law (Leviticus 23), but, as has been already observed, the fast in commemoration of the murder of Gedaliah. In the form צמתּני the suffix is not a substitute for the dative (Ges. 121, 4), but is to be taken as an accusative, expressive of the fact that the fasting related to God (Ewald, 315, b). The suffix is strengthened by אני for the sake of emphasis (Ges. 121, 3). In Zechariah 7:7 the form of the sentence is elliptical. The verb is omitted in the clause הלוא את־הדּברים, but not the subject, say זה, which many commentators supply, after the lxx, the Peshito, and the Vulgate ("Are these not the words which Jehovah announced?"), in which case את would have to be taken as nota nominativi. The sentence contains an aposiopesis, and is to be completed by supplying a verb, either "should ye not do or give heed to the words which," etc.? or "do ye not know the words?" ישׁבת, as in Zechariah 1:11, in the sense of sitting or dwelling; not in a passive sense, "to be inhabited," although it might be so expressed. שׁלוה is synonymous with שׁקטת in Zechariah 1:11. ישׁב, in the sense indicated at the close of the verse, is construed in the singular masculine, although it refers to a plurality of previous nouns (cf. Ges. 148, 2). In addition to Jerusalem, the following are mentioned as a periphrasis for the land of Judah: (1) her towns round about; these are the towns belonging to Jerusalem as the capital, towns of the mountains of Judah which were more or less dependent upon her: (2) the two rural districts, which also belonged to the kingdom of Judah, viz., the negeb, the south country (which Koehler erroneously identifies with the mountains of Judah; compare Joshua 15:21 with Joshua 15:48), and the shephēlâh, or lowland along the coast of the Mediterranean (see at Joshua 15:33).

Malachi 3:6 Parallel Commentaries

I am.

Genesis 15:7,18 And he said to him, I am the LORD that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it...

Genesis 22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, said the LORD, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son:

Exodus 3:14,15 And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you...

Nehemiah 9:7,8 You are the LORD the God, who did choose Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham...

Isaiah 41:13 For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not; I will help you.

Isaiah 42:5-8 Thus said God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth...

Isaiah 43:11,12 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior...

Isaiah 44:6 Thus said the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last...

Isaiah 45:5-8 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded you, though you have not known me...

Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?

Hosea 11:9 I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man...

I change not.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it?...

1 Samuel 15:29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

Psalm 102:26 They shall perish, but you shall endure: yes, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a clothing shall you change them...

Hebrews 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation...

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no ficklenss...

Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Revelation 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

therefore.

Psalm 78:38,57 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yes, many a time turned he his anger away...

Psalm 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on them that fear him, and his righteousness to children's children;

Psalm 105:7-10 He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth...

Isaiah 40:28-31 Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not...

Lamentations 3:22,23 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not...

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled...

Romans 8:28-32 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose...

Romans 11:28,29 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes...

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

2 Thessalonians 2:13,14 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brothers beloved of the Lord...