John Gill Commentary Zechariah 7

And it came to pass, in the fourth year of King Darius , &c.] Near two years after the foundation of the temple was laid, (Haggai 2:10Haggai 2:18) and near two years before it was finished, (Ezra 6:15) when the work was going forward, and there was a great deal of reason to believe it would be completed: [that] the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, in the fourth [day] of the ninth month, [even] in Chisleu : which answers to part of our October, and part of November.

When they had sent unto the house of God
It is, in the Hebrew text, "when he sent Bethel"; which some, as Kimchi observes, take to be the name of a man that was sent along with those after mentioned; but the Targum and the Septuagint render it, "when", or "after he had sent unto Bethel": not the place so called in Jacob's time; but Jerusalem, where the temple or house of God was now building; and it may be observed, that the words are expressed in the singular number, "when he had sent" ^F20 ; and not, as we render them, "when they had sent"; and agreeably, in (Zechariah 7:3) , it is said, "should I weep", &c. as if these messengers were sent by a single person, and yet a body of people is meant; and not the captives that remained in Babylon, as most interpreters understand it; but the Jews that were returned from thence, and were in Judea, as Junius and Tremellius observe; for to them the answer is returned, and to them does the Lord by the prophet direct his speech throughout the whole chapter.

The persons sent were Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men ;
who these persons were is not known; they were, no doubt, principal men of the people, by whom they were sent, and the chief of the embassy, and had others with them inferior to them:

part of their business at Bethel, or the house of God, was, to pray before the Lord ;
that they might be directed aright, and have a proper answer returned to the question they came with. The temple at Jerusalem was the place where men used to go up to pray; see (Luke 18:10) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: (xlvyw) "cum misisset, [sub.] populus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Tarnovius; "et misit", Pagninus, Montanus; "miserat autem sub". Israel, Vatablus; "et miserat", Cocceius; "et misit Bethelum", i. e. "urbem", Burkius.

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 3:12Jeremiah 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) .

FOOTNOTES:

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

Then came the word of the Lord of hosts to me, saying .
] Upon the sending of this embassy, and upon putting this question.

Speak unto all the people of the land
Of Judea, who had sent these men on this errand, and whom they represented, and in whose name they spoke:and to the priests ;
who were consulted on this occasion: saying, When you fasted and mourned in thefifth ;
on the seventh or tenth day of the fifth month Ab, on account of the temple being burnt by Nebuchadnezzar:and seventh [month] ;
the month Tisri, which answers to September; on the third day of this month a fast was kept on account of themurder of Gedaliah, (Jeremiah 41:1) though Kimchi says he was slain on the first day of the month; but,because that was a feast day, keeping a day for a fast on this occasion was fixed on the day following:even those seventy years ;
of their captivity, during which they kept the above fasts.

The Jews say ^F23 there was no fast of the congregation, or public fast, kept in Babylon, but on the ninth of Ab, or the fifth month only; and ifso, other fasts here, and in (Zechariah 8:19) , must be private ones. These seventy years are to bereckoned from the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, when the city was destroyed, to the second or fourth ofDarius: did you at all fast unto me, [even] to me ?
the fast they kept was not according to the command of God, but an appointment of theirs; nor was it directedto his glory; nor was it any profit or advantage to him; and therefore it was nothing to him whether theyfasted or not; see (Isaiah 58:3–7) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F23: T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 54. 2.