Zechariah 7:6

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 LORD ³by 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

did not ye eat for: or, be not ye they that did eat for, etc. Deuteronomy 12:7, Deuteronomy 14:26, 1 Samuel 16:7, 1 Chronicles 29:22, Jeremiah 17:9, Jeremiah 17:10, Hosea 8:13, Hosea 9:4, 1 Corinthians 10:31, 1 Corinthians 11:20, 1 Corinthians 11:21, 1 Corinthians 11:26-29, Colossians 3:17

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 20:24 - the king Isaiah 43:23 - honoured Jeremiah 36:9 - they Hosea 10:1 - an empty vine Zechariah 7:5 - did Zechariah 14:21 - every Malachi 1:13 - should I accept Luke 5:33 - Why Luke 18:12 - fast Romans 14:6 - regardeth it Titus 1:15 - but

Cross-References

Genesis 5:32
After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 8:13
In Noah's six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the water had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink,.... Either at common meals, or at their festivals:

did not ye eat [for yourselves], and drink [for yourselves]? merely and only for their own refreshment and pleasure, and not for the glory of God; though that ought to be the principal end in eating and drinking, 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And when ye eat and when ye drink, is it not ye who eat and ye who drink? - Conversely now that, after your return, ye feast for joy, this is no religious act; ye have all the good of it, there is no thanksgiving to God. Contrary to the apostle’s saying, “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glow of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31. “He eateth and drinketh to himself, who receiveth the nourishments of the body, which are the common gifts of the Creator, without the needy. And anyone fasts to himself, if he doth not give to the poor what for the time he withdraweth from himself, but keepeth it to be thereafter offered to his appetite. Hence, it is said by Joel, sanctify a fast. For to ‘sanctify a fast’ is to show an abstinence worthy of God through other good deeds. Let anger cease, quarrels be hushed. For in vain is the flesh worn, if the mind is not refrained from evil pleasures, since the Lord says by the prophet, “Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate ...” Isaiah 57:3-4.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 7:6. And when ye did eat — They had not observed those fasts as they should have done. They deplored the loss of their temple, and its riches, &c., but they did not humble themselves because of those iniquities which had brought the displeasure of God upon them, their temple, and their city.