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 3:7 Parallel Commentaries

from the.

Deuteronomy 9:7-21 Remember, and forget not, how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness...

Deuteronomy 31:20,27-29 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, that flows with milk and honey...

Nehemiah 9:16,17,26,28-30 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and listened not to your commandments...

Psalm 78:8-10 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright...

Ezekiel 20:8,13,21,28 But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes...

Luke 11:48-51 Truly you bear witness that you allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchers...

Acts 7:51,52 You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you...

Return unto me.

Leviticus 26:40-42 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me...

Deuteronomy 4:29-31 But if from there you shall seek the LORD your God, you shall find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul...

Deuteronomy 30:1-4 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you...

1 Kings 8:47-49 Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land where they were carried captives, and repent...

Nehemiah 1:8,9 Remember, I beseech you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you transgress...

Isaiah 55:6,7 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you on him while he is near...

Jeremiah 3:12-14,22 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, said the LORD...

Ezekiel 18:30-32 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, said the Lord GOD. Repent...

Hosea 14:1 O Israel, return to the LORD your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity.

Zechariah 1:3 Therefore say you to them, Thus said the LORD of hosts; Turn you to me, said the LORD of hosts, and I will turn to you...

James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.

Wherein.

Malachi 3:13 Your words have been stout against me, said the LORD. Yet you say, What have we spoken so much against you?

Malachi 1:6 A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear?...

Isaiah 65:2 I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, which walks in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;

Matthew 23:27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like to white washed sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward...

Luke 15:16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave to him.

Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

Romans 10:3,21 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness...