VII. THE INQUIRY CONCERNING THE CONTINUED OBSERVANCE OF THE FASTS. (1) FOURTH YEAR... This was in B.C. 518, the second year after the commencement of the re-building of the Temple, and about two years before its completion.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY HAD SENT... BEFORE THE LORD. — Better, _Then_ [the people of] _Bethel_ [such as] _Sherezer and Regemmelech, and his men, sent to entreat the Lord._ “Bethel” stands for the inhabitants of Bethel, many of the former inhabitants of which had returned (Ezra 2:28); similarly “Jerusalem” often m... [ Continue Reading ]
IN. — Better, _belonging to._ LXX., wrongly, ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ. IN THE FIFTH MONTH. — On the tenth of the fifth month (_Ab_)_,_ Nebuzar-adan burnt the Temple and Jerusalem with fire (Jeremiah 52:12), but in 2 Kings 25:8, the _seventh_ day of the fifth month is given as the date; perhaps it was in flames f... [ Continue Reading ]
(4-7) The people (as in Isaiah 58:3) are rebuked for the hypocritical, or merely formal, nature of their fasts. The prophet does not, even further on, give any direct answer to their inquiry. He seems to have wished to show them that fasting or not fasting was a matter of only secondary consideratio... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE PEOPLE. — The question, though asked but by a few, was of interest to all the people; or the people of Bethel may have been the representatives of all the people; at all events the reply is given to the whole nation (Zechariah 7:5). Though the mission came in the _ninth_ month, no question w... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD YE NOT HEAR THE WORDS WHICH... — Better, _are not these the very words which_... Haggai 2:5, and Zechariah 8:17, afford exactly parallel constructions. There is no need to supply any verb, such as “should ye not hear?” “should ye not do?” or “do ye not know?” LXX., rightly, οὐχ οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι... [ Continue Reading ]
(8-14) The prophet implies that true fasting is to loose the bands of wickedness and leave off oppression. But Israel had adopted quite the opposite course, and therefore God, in accordance with Deuteronomy 4:27, had scattered them among the nations.... [ Continue Reading ]
And let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. — Better, _and imagine not evil against one another in your heart._ The LXX., (καὶ κακίαν ἕκαστος τοῦ�), and Auth. Version are here grammatically incorrect, the pronoun being not here (as it is in Zechariah 8:17) the nominative but... [ Continue Reading ]
PULLED AWAY THE SHOULDER. — Better, _offered a stubborn shoulder_ (Nehemiah 9:29), as an ox that refuses to receive the yoke.... [ Continue Reading ]
ADAMANT STONE means a very hard stone; “diamond” is the modern form of the word. “Adamant,” _adhámas,_ meaning in Greek _unconquerable,_ was originally applied to “steel” (_Hesiod_). LXX. explain the metaphor, “made the heart disobedient.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE IT IS COME TO PASS. — LXX., wrongly, καὶ ἔσται, the consequence of which mistake is that the following verbs are also put incorrectly in the future. (For the phraseology comp. Micah 3:4; Jeremiah 11:11; Jeremiah 14:12.)... [ Continue Reading ]