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Sunday, September 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 20 / Ordinary 25
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Read the Bible

King James Version (1611 Edition)

Zechariah 1:5

Your fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, doe they liue for euer?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Death;   The Topic Concordance - Disobedience;   Hearing;   Rendering;   Servants;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Ancestors;   Apocalyptic literature;   Zechariah, book of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Zechariah, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Zechariah, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Apocalyptic Literature;   Zechariah, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Zechariah, Prophecy of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Joshua (3);   Zechariah, Book of;  

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
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?
Easy-to-Read Version
"Your ancestors are gone, and those prophets did not live forever.
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 In the eight moneth, in the seconde yeere of Darius, came the word of the Lord vnto Zechariah, the sonne of Barachiah, the sonne of Iddo the Prophet, saying, 2 The Lord hath bene sore displeased with your fathers. 3 Therefore say thou vnto them, Thus saith the Lord of hostes; Turne ye vnto me, saith the Lord of hostes, and I will turne vnto you, saith the Lord of hostes. 4 Be ye not as your fathers, vnto whom the former Prophets haue cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hostes, Turne ye now from your euill wayes, and from your euil doings: but they did not heare, nor hearken vnto me, saith the Lord. 5 Your fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, doe they liue for euer? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my seruants the Prophets, did they not take holde of your fathers? and they returned and saide; Like as the Lord of hostes thought to doe vnto vs, according to our wayes, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with vs.

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
And God called the firmament, Heauen: and the euening and the morning were the second day.
Genesis 1:13
And the euening and the morning were the third day.
Genesis 1:19
And the euening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1:23
And the euening and the morning were the fift day.
Genesis 1:31
And God saw euery thing that hee had made: and behold, it was very good. And the euening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 8:22
While the earth remaineth, seed-time and haruest, and cold, and heat, and Summer, and Winter, and day and night, shall not cease.
Psalms 19:2
Day vnto day vttereth speach, and night vnto night sheweth knowledge.
Psalms 74:16
The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sunne.
Psalms 104:20
Thou makest darknesse, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forrest doe creepe forth.
Isaiah 45:7
I forme the light, and create darkenesse: I make peace, and create euill: 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.


 
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