Zechariah 7, Why Did You Fast?

After the eight visions in chapters 1 through 6, we have a later ninth vision. This one occurs several years after the previous ones and is stimulated by a question from returning exiles.

Zechariah 7:1-3, Should I mourn?
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. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, together with their men, to entreat the LORD 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?"

People living in Bethel sent representatives to Jerusalem to ask Zechariah some questions. The main question seems to be whether they should continue the mourning and fasting of the fifth month, something that had been part of the Babylonian captivity. The fifth month was the month in which the temple had been burned by Nebuchadnezzar seventy years earlier (2 Kings 25:8-12.) But now the temple was being rebuilt. The religious leaders wanted to know if there was a need to fast any longer.

Baldwin notes that the men arrive early on the ninth month, asking a question about the fifth month. The delay can be explained by travelers originating from Babylon, asking questions raised by Jewish leaders still residing there.

Zechariah 7:4-7, For what did you fast?
Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: 

"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? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?'"

The question by the men from Bethel is not answered until the end of chapter 8.  God's response, given through Zechariah, instead focuses on the motivation behind the fifth-month fasting -- and the another fast during the seventh month.  These fasts have been continuing for the seventy years of exile.  During this time, why did the people fast? And what were their motives when they broke the fasts? We they focusing on YHWH? Or for some other reason? Implied, in this response, is that the people have followed religious rites without real desire for God.

Zechariah 7:8-10, Administer justice
 And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah:

"This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'

More important even than the fasts are basic things like justice, mercy and compassion. The people are to administer justice, show mercy and compassion. They are to protect the vulnerable: the widow, fatherless, alien, poor. And to "not think evil of each other."

Zechariah 7:11-14, Administer justice

"But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

"`When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' 

says the LORD Almighty. 

`I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.'"

But, says YHWH, the people of Israel, before the exile, did not follow these commands. They disobeyed YHWH and in His anger He scattered them throughout the nations. (Later Nehemiah repeats this charge; see Nehemiah 9:29-31.)

In verse 12, the earlier messages of the prophets is identified as action by God's Spirit (ruah.) This statement, emphasizing the Spirit, is unusual and does not appear elsewhere in the Old Testament prophetic books, says Baldwin. In the New Testament it is emphasized in places such as 2 Peter 1:19-21.

The people have not received a clear Yes/No answer to their question -- instead they have been reminded of their real duties and the principles behind their religious acts. The people are to learn from the past how to act in the future. This teaching will continue into the next chapter.

First published December 17, 2025; updated December 17, 2025