Zechariah 1:5

5 So where are your ancestors? 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 But you must say to the people, The LORD of heavenly forces proclaims: Return to me, says the LORD of heavenly forces, and I will return to you, says the LORD of heavenly forces.

4 Don't be like your ancestors to whom the former prophets preached: The LORD of heavenly forces proclaims: Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds. But they didn't listen; they didn't draw near to me.

5 So where are your ancestors? Do the prophets live forever?

6 In fact, didn't my words and laws, which I gave to my servants, the prophets, pursue your ancestors? And then the people changed their hearts, and they said, The LORD of heavenly forces has treated us according to what we have done, exactly as he planned.

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month of Shebat) in the second year of Darius, the LORD's word came to Zechariah the prophet, Berechiah's son and Iddo's grandson: