Bible Strands
Zechariah 7:5
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD of Hosts speaks through the prophet to all the people of the land and the priests, addressing a seventy-year period of mourning observed in the fifth and seventh months.
The words — אֱמֹר ('e.Mor) = say, and לֵ/אמֹר (le./Mor) = to saying, frame the divine command to deliver a direct question to the community about their religious practice.
The thread — The text’s focus on fasting motive runs alongside Isaiah 58:4, which condemns fasting accompanied by contention and strife, while Zechariah 1:12 records the angel’s intercession regarding God’s anger and mercy rather than ritual critique. Matthew 5:16 shifts the focus outward, instructing believers to perform visible good deeds that direct glory to the Father.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to examine whether religious observance serves God or self, demanding honest accountability for the true motive behind every act of fasting.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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?
Cross-references
- Zechariah 1:12 Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”
- Isaiah 58:4 You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.
- Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
- 1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.
- Isaiah 1:11 “What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Zechariah 7:3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”
- Zechariah 7:6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?
- Matthew 6:2 So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
- Matthew 6:5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
- Matthew 6:16 When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.