Zechariah 1:5

Easy-to-Read Version

"Your ancestors are gone, and those prophets did not live forever.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Where are your ancestors now? And do the prophets live forever?

Hebrew Names Version
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

King James Version (1611)
Your fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, doe they liue for euer?

King James Version
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

English Standard Version
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

New American Standard Bible
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

New Century Version
Your ancestors are dead, and those prophets didn't live forever.

Amplified Bible
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

Geneva Bible (1587)
your fathers, where are they? and doe the Prophets liue for euer?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

Legacy Standard Bible
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

Berean Standard Bible
Where are your forefathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?

Contemporary English Version
Where are your ancestors now? Not even prophets live forever.

Complete Jewish Bible
"Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

Darby Translation
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

George Lamsa Translation
Your fathers, where are they? And my prophets, do they live for ever?

Good News Translation
Your ancestors and those prophets are no longer alive.

Lexham English Bible
"Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

Literal Translation
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

American Standard Version
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

Bible in Basic English
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they go on living for ever?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
What is nowe become of your forefathers? & do the prophetes liue for euer?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Where are your fathers, and the prophets? Will they live for ever?

English Revised Version
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

World English Bible
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Where ben youre fadris and profetis? whether thei schulen lyue with outen ende?

Update Bible Version
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?

Webster's Bible Translation
Your fathers, where [are] they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

New English Translation
"As for your ancestors, where are they? And did the prophets live forever?

New King James Version
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

New Living Translation
"Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead.

New Life Bible
"Where are your fathers now? And the men who spoke for Me, do they live forever?

New Revised Standard
Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Your fathers, where are they? and, the prophets, to times age-abiding, do they live?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, shall they live always?

Revised Standard Version
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?

Young's Literal Translation
Your fathers -- where [are] they? And the prophets -- to the age do they live?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
What is now become of youre forefathers and the prophetes? are they yet still alyue?

THE MESSAGE
"And where are your ancestors now? Dead and buried. And the prophets who preached to them? Also dead and buried. But the Message that my servants the prophets spoke, that isn't dead and buried. That Message did its work on your ancestors, did it not? It woke them up and they came back, saying, ‘He did what he said he would do, sure enough. We didn't get by with a thing.'"

Contextual Overview

¹ Zechariah son of Berekiah received a message from the Lord . This was in the eighth month of the second year that Darius was king in Persia. (Zechariah was the son of Berekiah, who was the son of Iddo the prophet.) This is that message: ² The Lord became very angry with your ancestors. ³ So you must tell the people what the Lord All-Powerful says, "Come back to me, says the Lord All-Powerful, and I will come back to you." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said. ⁴ "Don't be like your ancestors. In the past the prophets spoke to them and said, ‘The Lord All-Powerful wants you to change your evil way of living. Stop doing evil things!' But your ancestors did not listen to me." This is what the Lord said. ⁵ "Your ancestors are gone, and those prophets did not live forever. ⁶ The prophets were my servants. I used them to tell your ancestors about my laws and teachings. Your ancestors finally learned their lesson and said, ‘The Lord All-Powerful did what he said he would do. He punished us for the way we lived and for all the evil things we did.' So they came back to God."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 14:10-12, Psalms 90:10, Ecclesiastes 1:4, Ecclesiastes 9:1-3, Ecclesiastes 12:5, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Acts 13:36, Hebrews 7:23, Hebrews 7:24, Hebrews 9:27, 2 Peter 3:2-4

Reciprocal: Genesis 48:21 - Behold Deuteronomy 18:22 - if the thing Joshua 24:33 - died 1 Samuel 9:6 - all that he saith 1 Kings 16:34 - General 2 Kings 13:14 - he died Ezra 9:7 - Since the days Psalms 49:9 - That he Jeremiah 9:14 - which Jeremiah 25:5 - Turn Jeremiah 36:28 - General Lamentations 3:42 - thou Lamentations 5:7 - and are John 6:49 - and are John 8:52 - Abraham

Cross-References

Genesis 1:8
God named that space "sky." There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the second day.

Genesis 1:13
There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the third day.

Genesis 1:19
There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the fourth day.

Genesis 1:23
There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the fifth day.

Genesis 1:31
God looked at everything he had made. And he saw that everything was very good. There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the sixth day.

Genesis 8:22
As long as the earth continues, there will always be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night on earth."

Psalms 19:2
Each new day tells more of the story, and each night reveals more and more about God's power.

Psalms 74:16
You control the day and the night. You made the sun and the moon.

Psalms 104:20
You made darkness to be the night— the time when wild animals come out and roam around.

Isaiah 45:7
I made the light and the darkness. I bring peace, and I cause trouble. I, the Lord , do all these things.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Your fathers, where [are] they?.... They are not in the land of the living; they perished by the sword of the Chaldeans, or died in captivity:

and the prophets, do they live for ever? meaning either the false prophets, as Hananiah and Shemaiah, Jeremiah 28:17 or the true prophets of the Lord; and the words may be considered as a prevention of an objection the people might make, taken from their prophets dying in common with their fathers; and so the Targum paraphrases them, "and if you should say, the prophets, do they live for ever?" which is followed by Jarchi, and embraced by many interpreters: the answer is, it is true they died; but then their words live, and have had their full accomplishment.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Your fathers, where are they? - The abrupt solemnity of the question seems to imply an unexpected close of life which cut short their hopes, plans, promises to self. “When they said, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them” 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Yet not they only but the prophets too, who ministered God’s Word to them, these also being human beings, passed away, some of them before their time as people, by the martyr’s death. Many of them saw not their own words fulfilled. But God’s word which they spake, being from God, passed not away.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 1:5. Your fathers, where are they? — Israel has been destroyed and ruined in the bloody wars with the Assyrians; and Judah, in those with the Chaldeans.

The prophets, do they live for ever? — They also, who spoke unto your fathers, are dead; but their predictions remain; and the events, which have taken place according to those predictions, prove that God sent them.