Zechariah 1:6

But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. BUT MY WORDS AND MY STATUTES - my determined purposes to punish for sin, which I commanded my servants-namely, to announce to your fathers. DID THEY NOT TAKE HOLD OF YOUR FATHERS? - i:e., overtake them, as a foe overtakes one fleeing. DID THEY NOT TAKE HOLD OF YOUR FATHERS? - i:e., overtake them, as a foe overtakes one fleeing. AND THEY RETURNED AND SAID - turning from their former self-satisfaction, they recognized their punishment as that which God's prophets had foretold. LIKE AS THE LORD OF HOSTS THOUGHT TO DO UNTO US - i:e., decreed to do. Compare with this ve...

He then immediately adds, _But my words and my statutes _(15) _which I have committed to my Prophets, have they not laid hold on your fathers? _We have seen that he made a concession in the last verse; but here God expressly declares what I have stated — that though men vanish, or are hence removed after a short time, yet heavenly truth is ever firm, and retains its own power. But the Prophet uses another form of expression, _My words_, he says, _which I have committed to my servants, the Prophets, have they not laid on _(16) _your father? _that is, “ought the remembrance of the punishment, by which I intended to teach you, and your children, and your grandchildren, that ye might not provoke my wrath as your fathers did, to be lost by you? Since the ye see the effect of my doctrine in your fathers, why do ye not consider, that as I am always the same, my words cannot possibly be in vain...

1-6 God's almighty power and sovereign dominion, should engage and encourage sinners to repent and turn to Him. It is very desirable to have the Lord of hosts for our friend, and very dreadful to have him for our enemy. Review what is past, and observe the message God sent by his servants, the prophets, to your fathers. Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings. Be persuaded to leave your sins, as the only way to prevent approaching ruin. What is become of our fathers, and of the prophets that preached to them? They are all dead and gone. Here they were, in the towns and countries where we live, passing and repassing in the same streets, dwelling in the same houses, trading in the same shops and exchanges, worshipping God in the same places. But where are they? When they died, there was not an end of them; they are in eternity, in the world of spirits, the unchangeable...

Verse Zechariah 1:6. _DID THEY NOT TAKE HOLD OF YOUR FATHERS?_] Every thing happened according to the predictions, and they were obliged to acknowledge this; and yet they would not turn from their evil way....

ONLY MY WORDS AND MY DECREES - Which God spake by them, “did not they overtake them?” (as Psalms 2:7; Zephaniah 2:2). Pagan reminiscence of God’s justice acknowledged , “Rarely hath punishment with limping tread parted with the forerunning miscreant.” “All these curses,” Moses foretells, “shall come upon thee and overtake thee, until thou art destroyed” Deuteronomy 28:45. AND THEY RETURNED TO GOD AND SAID - The history of the Jews in Babylon is omitted in Holy Scripture, except as to His special dealings with Daniel and his three companions. Yet Jeremiah confesses in words, what Zechariah had apparently in his mind; “The Lord hath done that which

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-6:15 Part I. A SERIES OF EIGHT VISIONS, AND A SYMBOLICAL ACTION. ZECHARIAH 1:1 § 1. _Title of the book, and author. _THE EIGHTH MONTH. This was called Bul before the Captivity (1 Kings 6:38), and afterwards Marchesvan (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 1.3 3); it answered to parts of October and November, and was a time of rain. Haggai had first prophesied two months earlier. THE SECOND YEAR OF DARIUS. Being now under foreign rule, the prophet uses the regnal years of the king to whom his people were subject (see note on...

BUT MY WORDS AND MY STATUTES, WHICH I COMMANDED MY SERVANTS THE PROPHETS,.... That is, the predictions which he ordered his prophets to declare in his name, that their fathers should die by the sword, or famine, or pestilence, or be carried captive, which he purposed in himself, and threatened them with: DID THEY NOT TAKE HOLD OF YOUR FATHERS? overtake them, seize upon them, and have their accomplishment in them? not one thing has failed, or come short of being fulfilled, of all that was determined, or said should be done: AND THEY RETURNED AND SAID; that is, as many of them as perished not, but were carried captive; at least many of them, who either were thoroughly converted, and turned from their evil, or however in appearance: and who were obliged to own, LIKE AS THE LORD OF HOSTS THOUGHT TO DO UNTO US, ACCORDING TO OUR WAYS, AND ACCORDING TO OUR DOING, SO HATH HE DEALT WITH US: as...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS 1. THE NIGHT VISIONS CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The introduction (Zechariah 1:1) _ 2. The first night vision (Zechariah 1:7) 3. The second night vision (Zechariah 1:18) Zechariah 1:1. The first utterance of Zechariah concerns the past. “The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.” They were a disobedient, stiff-necked people. The pre-exilic prophets had called them to repentance, but they did not hearken. Then he gives the message to turn to the Lord, with the promise that He will turn to them; they should not be like their fathers. And their fathers, where w

This rebuke (see above, p. 575) seems inconsistent with a date five weeks or more after work had been begun at the Temple and at least ten days after the prophecy in Haggai 2:1. The clumsy handiwork of one or more editors is also evident in the section. The thought appears to be as follows: The Lord had great cause to be wroth with your fathers, and their punishment has largely fallen upon you. But now if you will change your attitude towards Him in showing loyal obedience, He will change His attitude towards you in showing you mercy. Your fathers were stubborn, and they are gone; but the prophets-' words came to pass, and your fathers were constrained to acknowledge the justice of their punishment. Zechariah 1:5, as it stands, is difficult. The required sense is best given by the restoration of a negative omitted by

TAKE HOLD OF. overtake. Compare Deuteronomy 28:15; Deuteronomy 28:45. SAID. See Lamentations 1:18....