Zechariah 7:2

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. ²Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to plead before the LORD³by 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?" ⁴Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying, 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? ⁶And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves? ⁷Are these not the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and the Negev and the Lowland were inhabited?'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

they: Zechariah 6:10, Ezra 6:10, Ezra 7:15-23, Ezra 8:28-30, Isaiah 60:7

pray before the Lord: Heb. intreat the face of the Lord, Zechariah 8:21, Exodus 32:11, *marg. 1 Samuel 13:12, 1 Kings 13:6, Jeremiah 26:19

Cross-References

Genesis 7:1
Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

Genesis 7:8
The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground

Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

Genesis 7:15
They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life.

Genesis 7:19
Finally, the waters completely inundated the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered.

Genesis 7:21
And every creature that had moved upon the earth perished-birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.

Genesis 8:20
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. Taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Leviticus 10:10
You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean,

Ezekiel 44:23
They are to teach My people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to discern between the clean and the unclean.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When they had sent unto the house of God,.... It is, in the Hebrew text, "when he sent Bethel"; which some, as Kimchi observes, take to be the name of a man that was sent along with those after mentioned; but the Targum and the Septuagint render it, "when", or "after he had sent unto Bethel": not the place so called in Jacob's time; but Jerusalem, where the temple or house of God was now building; and it may be observed, that the words are expressed in the singular number, "when he had sent" t; and not, as we render them, "when they had sent"; and agreeably, in Zechariah 7:3, it is said, "should I weep", c. as if these messengers were sent by a single person, and yet a body of people is meant and not the captives that remained in Babylon, as most interpreters understand it; but the Jews that were returned from thence, and were in Judea, as Junius and Tremellius observe; for to them the answer is returned, and to them does the Lord by the prophet direct his speech throughout the whole chapter. The persons sent were

Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men; who these persons were is not known; they were, no doubt, principal men of the people, by whom they were sent, and the chief of the embassy, and had others with them inferior to them: part of their business at Bethel, or the house of God, was,

to pray before the Lord; that they might be directed aright, and have a proper answer returned to the question they came with. The temple at Jerusalem was the place where men used to go up to pray; see

Luke 18:10.

t וישלח "cum misisset, [sub.] populus", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Tarnovius "et misit", Pagninus, Montanus; "miserat autem sub". Israel, Vatablus; "et miserat", Cocceius; "et misit Bethelum", i. e. "urbem", Burkius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

When they held sent unto the house of God - Rather, “And Bethel sent;” that is, the inhabitants of Bethel sent. “The house of God” is nowhere in Holy Scripture called Bethel. Bethel is always the name of the place. . The “house of God” is designated by historians, Psalmists, prophets, by the name, “Beth-elohim,” more commonly “Beth-Ha-elohim, the God;” or “of the Lord,” YHVH. Zechariah and Haggai use these names. It is not likely that the name, Beth-el, should have first been given to the house of God, when it had been desecrated by the idolatries of Jeroboam. Bethel also is, in the Hebrew order of the words, naturally the subject . Nor is there any reason why they should have sent to Bethel, since they sought an answer from God. For it would be forced to say that they sent to Bethel, in order that those at Bethel should send to Jerusalem; which is not said.

It were unnatural also that the name of the sender should not have been mentioned, when the names of persons inferior, because sent, are recorded . Bethel, in Nehemiah’s time Nehemiah 11:31, was one of the chief places of Benjamin. “Two hundred twenty and three of the men of Bethel and Ai” Ezra 2:28 had returned with Zerubbabel. The answer being to “the people” of the land, such were doubtless the enquirers, not those still in Babylon. The answer shows that the question was not religious, though put as matter of religion. It is remarkable that, whereas in the case of those who brought presents from Babylon, the names express some relation to God, these names are singularly, the one of a parricide son of Sennacherib Isaiah 37:38; 2 Kings 19:37, and of one, chief among the King of Babylon’s princes ; the other probably a secular name, “the king’s friend”.

Osorius: “I do not see why under the name of Bethel, the city so called is not understood. For since Jerusalem was not yet fortified, the Jews chose them sites in various places, where they should be less harassed. All hatred was concentrated on that city, which the neighbors wished not to be restored to its former greatness. Other cities they did not so molest. Bethel then, that is, the assembly of the city, sent messengers to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God and consult the wise there.”

To entreat the face of the Lord - They wished, it seems, (so to speak) to ingratiate themselves with God with an account of their past self-humiliation, on the day when the house of God was burned by Nebuchadnezzar. In regard to God, the word is always used of entreating Him by earnest prayer .

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 7:2. When they had sent - Sherezer and Regem-melech — To inquire whether the fasts should be continued, which they had hitherto observed on account of their ruined temple; and the reason why they inquired was, that they were rebuilding that temple, and were likely to bring it to a joyful issue.