Lectionary Calendar
Monday, August 18th, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

Young's Literal Translation

Zechariah 1:5

Your fathers -- where [are] they? And the prophets -- to the age do they live?

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 (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?
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 eighth month, in the second year of Darius, hath a word of Jehovah been unto Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, the prophet, saying: 2 `Jehovah was wroth against your fathers -- wrath! 3 And thou hast said unto them, Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, turn back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And I turn back unto you, said Jehovah of Hosts. 4 Ye shall not be as your fathers, To whom the former prophets called, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Turn back I pray you, From your evil ways and from your evil doings, And they did not hearken, Nor attend to Me -- an affirmation of Jehovah. 5 Your fathers -- where [are] they? And the prophets -- to the age do they live? 6 Only, My words, and My statutes, That I commanded My servants the prophets, Have they not overtaken your fathers, And they turn back and say: As Jehovah of Hosts designed to do to us, According to our ways, and according to our doings, So He hath done to us?'

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 calleth to the expanse `Heavens;' and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day second.
Genesis 1:13
and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day third.
Genesis 1:19
and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day fourth.
Genesis 1:23
and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day fifth.
Genesis 1:31
And God seeth all that He hath done, and lo, very good; and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day the sixth.
Genesis 8:22
during all days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, do not cease.'
Psalms 19:2
Day to day uttereth speech, And night to night sheweth knowledge.
Psalms 74:16
Thine [is] the day, also Thine [is] the night, Thou hast prepared a light giver -- the sun.
Psalms 104:20
Thou settest darkness, and it is night, In it doth every beast of the forest creep.
Isaiah 45:7
Forming light, and preparing darkness, Making peace, and preparing evil, I [am] Jehovah, doing 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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