Zechariah 7:3

3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

Zechariah 7:3 in Other Translations

3 And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?

3 saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, "Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"

3 They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”

3 and to confer with the priests of the Temple of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, and also with the prophets. They posed this question: "Should we plan for a day of mourning and abstinence next August, the seventieth anniversary of Jerusalem's fall, as we have been doing all these years?"

3 [and] to speak unto the priests of the house of Jehovah of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?

3 They asked the priests from the house of the LORD of Armies as well as the prophets, "Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done for so many years?"

3 by asking the priests who were at the house of the Lord of Hosts as well as the prophets, "Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?"

3 They went to the prophets and priests at the LORD's temple. They asked them, "Should we sob and go without eating in the fifth month? That's what we've done for many years."

Zechariah 7:3 Meaning and Commentary

Zechariah 7:3

And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of
the Lord of hosts
That ministered in the sanctuary, as the Targum explains it, who offered sacrifices and who were to be consulted in matters of religion, ( Malachi 2:7 ) : and to the prophets;
who were then in being, as Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: saying, Should I weep in the fifth month;
which is the month Ab, and answers to July: now on the seventh day of this month, according to ( 2 Kings 25:8 2 Kings 25:9 ) , the temple was burnt by the Chaldeans; and, according to ( Jeremiah 3:12 Jeremiah 3:13 ) , it was on the tenth of this month, which day was kept by the Jews as a day of fasting and humiliation, in commemoration of it; and by the Misnic doctors ^F21 afterwards was removed, and kept on the ninth day of the said month; but, seeing the temple was in great forwardness of being rebuilt, the question with those Jews was, whether they should continue any longer mourning and fasting on that account: separating myself:
that is, from eating and drinking, and not taking the lawful pleasures and recreations of life: as I have done these so many years?
for the space of seventy years, as in ( Zechariah 7:5 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 Misn. Taanith, c. 4. sect. 7, 8. T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 29. 1.

Zechariah 7:3 In-Context

1 In 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 Kislev.

2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD

3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

4 Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me:

5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?

Cross References

• 1. Zechariah 12:12-14
• 2. 2 Kings 25:9; Jeremiah 52:12-14; Zechariah 8:19