Zechariah 1:5

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.'"

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?

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?

Contextual Overview

¹In the eighth month of the second year in the reign of Darius, God 's Message came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo: " God was very angry with your ancestors. So give to the people this Message from God -of-the-Angel-Armies: ‘Come back to me and I'll come back to you. Don't be like your parents. The old-time prophets called out to them, "A Message from God -of-the-Angel-Armies: Leave your evil life. Quit your evil practices." But they ignored everything I said to them, stubbornly refused to listen.' ⁵"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.'"

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 1:31
God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning— Day Six.

Genesis 8:22
For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, day and night will never stop."

Psalms 104:20
class="poetry"> O my soul, bless God ! God , my God, how great you are! beautifully, gloriously robed, Dressed up in sunshine, and all heaven stretched out for your tent. You built your palace on the ocean deeps, made a chariot out of clouds and took off on wind-wings. You commandeered winds as messengers, appointed fire and flame as ambassadors. You set earth on a firm foundation so that nothing can shake it, ever. You blanketed earth with ocean, covered the mountains with deep waters; Then you roared and the water ran away— your thunder crash put it to flight. Mountains pushed up, valleys spread out in the places you assigned them. You set boundaries between earth and sea; never again will earth be flooded. You started the springs and rivers, sent them flowing among the hills. All the wild animals now drink their fill, wild donkeys quench their thirst. Along the riverbanks the birds build nests, ravens make their voices heard. You water the mountains from your heavenly cisterns; earth is supplied with plenty of water. You make grass grow for the livestock, hay for the animals that plow the ground. Oh yes, God brings grain from the land, wine to make people happy, Their faces glowing with health, a people well-fed and hearty. God 's trees are well-watered— the Lebanon cedars he planted. Birds build their nests in those trees; look—the stork at home in the treetop. Mountain goats climb about the cliffs; badgers burrow among the rocks. The moon keeps track of the seasons, the sun is in charge of each day. When it's dark and night takes over, all the forest creatures come out. The young lions roar for their prey, clamoring to God for their supper. When the sun comes up, they vanish, lazily stretched out in their dens. Meanwhile, men and women go out to work, busy at their jobs until evening. What a wildly wonderful world, God ! You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations. Oh, look—the deep, wide sea, brimming with fish past counting, sardines and sharks and salmon. Ships plow those waters, and Leviathan, your pet dragon, romps in them. All the creatures look expectantly to you to give them their meals on time. You come, and they gather around; you open your hand and they eat from it. If you turned your back, they'd die in a minute— Take back your Spirit and they die, revert to original mud; Send out your Spirit and they spring to life— the whole countryside in bloom and blossom. The glory of God —let it last forever! Let God enjoy his creation! He takes one look at earth and triggers an earthquake, points a finger at the mountains, and volcanoes erupt. Oh, let me sing to God all my life long, sing hymns to my God as long as I live! Oh, let my song please him; I'm so pleased to be singing to God . But clear the ground of sinners— no more godless men and women! O my soul, bless God !

1 Corinthians 3:13
But for right now, friends, I'm completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You're acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I'll nurse you since you don't seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything's going your way? When one of you says, "I'm on Paul's side," and another says, "I'm for Apollos," aren't you being totally infantile? Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in which we are working. Or, to put it another way, you are God's house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you'll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won't get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn't, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won't be torn out; you'll survive—but just barely. You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that. God's temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple. Don't fool yourself. Don't think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God's fool—that's the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It's written in Scripture, He exposes the chicanery of the chic. The Master sees through the smoke screens of the know-it-alls. I don't want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.

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.