Zechariah 1:5

5 "Where are your ancestors now? And do the prophets live forever?

Zechariah 1:5 Meaning and Commentary

Zechariah 1:5

Your fathers, where [are] they?
&c.] They are not in the land of the living; they perished by the sword of the Chaldeans, or died in captivity: and the prophets, do they live for ever?
meaning either the false prophets, as Hananiah and Shemaiah, ( Jeremiah 28:17 ) ( 29:32 ) or the true prophets of the Lord; and the words may be considered as a prevention of an objection the people might make, taken from their prophets dying in common with their fathers; and so the Targum paraphrases them, "and if you should say, the prophets, do they live for ever?" which is followed by Jarchi, and embraced by many interpreters: the answer is, it is true they died; but then their words live, and have had their full accomplishment.

Zechariah 1:5 In-Context

3 So tell the people: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Return to Me"-[this is] the declaration of the Lord of Hosts-"and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts.

4 Do not be like your ancestors; the earlier prophets proclaimed to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds. But they did not listen or pay attention to Me"-the Lord's declaration.

5 "Where are your ancestors now? And do the prophets live forever?

6 But didn't My words and My statutes that I commanded My servants the prophets overtake your ancestors? They repented and said: As the Lord of Hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so He has dealt with us." The Night Visions

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo: