There is no vision here, but the answer which Zechariah was commanded to give to the messengers of the captives: for he says that some had been sent from Chaldea to offer sacrifices to God, and at the same time to inquire whether the fast, which they had appointed when the city was taken and destroy... [ Continue Reading ]
He says first, that messengers were sent to _entreat the face of Jehovah_. Here by the word entreating or praying, the Prophet means also sacrifices. For it is certain that the Jews prayed in exile, as there could have been no religion in them had they not exercised themselves in prayer. But the men... [ Continue Reading ]
Let us now consider the question which the captives proposed to the priests. They asked whether they were to weep in the fifth month, and whether they were to separate themselves as they had done for seventy years and more; for some years, as we have seen, had elapsed beyond that number. We hence le... [ Continue Reading ]
Here the Prophet tells us that he was sent to the people and to the priests, not so much to teach the messengers who came from distant lands, as to correct the vices of his own nation; for the Jews had then begun, according to their usual manner, to dissemble with God, and had glided, as it has else... [ Continue Reading ]
He therefore brings this charge against them, _Have ye fasted to me? have ye eaten to me? _as though he had said, “God regards not fastings, except they proceed from a sincere feeling and tend to a right and lawful end.” It was then the object of the Prophet to awaken the Jews, that they might not i... [ Continue Reading ]
By saying, that _to themselves they did eat and drink_, he intimates that to eat and to drink, or to abstain from eating and drinking, are things wholly unconnected with the worship of God. Another sense may indeed be elicited, — that the Jews did eat as heathens did: and there will be in this case... [ Continue Reading ]
And the Prophet’s object is more evident from the next verse, when he says, _Are not these the words which Jehovah proclaimed by the former Prophets? _He confirms here his doctrine by many testimonies, that is, that God had already through successive ages exhorted the Jews to true repentance, and co... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thus saith Jehovah of hosts_, (71) saying, _The judgment of truth judge, and kindness and mercies show, every one to his brother_. We have seen what the Prophet said of fasting, when messengers were sent by the exiles to enquire on the subject. It was a suitable opportunity for handling the questio... [ Continue Reading ]
He mentions here some other duties, but for the same purpose of showing, that the fear of God is not proved by ceremonies, but by acting justly towards our brethren, and not by abstaining only from doing wrong, but by being ready to help the miserable. As widows, and orphans, and strangers are expos... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet here by referring to the fathers more sharply reproves the Jews of his age; for he saw that they differed but little from their fathers. The sum of what he says is, that the Jews in all ages dealt unfaithfully and perversely with God; for how much soever they boasted of their care and ze... [ Continue Reading ]
He then comes to the heart, _They made_, he says, _their heart adamant_, or the very hardest stone. Some render it steel, and others flint. It means sometimes a thorn; but in this place, as in Ezekiel 3:9, and in Jeremiah 17:1, it is to be taken for adamant, or the hardest stone. (75) We now see tha... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet sets forth more fully the dreadfulness of this punishment — that they in vain groaned and complained, for God was deaf to their complaints and cryings. When God in some measure fulminates and becomes soon reconciled, he does not seem to be greatly incensed, but when the miserable whom he... [ Continue Reading ]
Here the Prophet concludes what he had been speaking of God’s vengeance, by which he had fully proved, that the sins of that nation had arrived to such a pitch, that there was no room for pardon. Hence he says, that they had been _dispersed_; for so I prefer to render the word, and the context seems... [ Continue Reading ]