Zechariah 1:5

5 Where be your fathers and (the) prophets? whether they shall live [into] without end? (And now where be your forefathers, and the prophets? do they 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 And thou shalt say to them, The Lord of hosts saith these things. Be ye turned again to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I shall be turned again to you, saith the Lord of hosts. (And thou shalt say to the people, The Lord of hosts saith these things. Return ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I shall return to you/Come ye back to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I shall come back to you.)
4 Be ye not as your fathers, to which the former prophets cried, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, Be ye converted from your evil ways, and your worst thoughts; and they heard not, neither took attention to me, saith the Lord of hosts. (Do not ye be like your forefathers, to whom the earlier prophets, or the prophets of old, cried, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, Turn ye away from your evil ways, and your worst thoughts; and they did not listen, nor pay any attention to me, saith the Lord of hosts.)
5 Where be your fathers and (the) prophets? whether they shall live [into] without end? (And now where be your forefathers, and the prophets? do they live forever?)
6 Nevertheless my words and my lawful things, which I commanded to my servants (the) prophets, whether they caught not your fathers? And they were turned again, and said, As the Lord of hosts thought for to do to us by our ways, and by our findings, he did to us. (Nevertheless my words and my laws, which I commanded to my servants the prophets, did they not catch, or overtake, your forefathers? And then they repented, or turned, and said, As the Lord of hosts thought to do to us because of our ways, and our deeds, so he hath done to us.)
7 In the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month Sebat, that is, January, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord was made to Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, prophet, and said, (On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, that is, January, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord was made to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, and said,)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.