Zechariah 7 Study Notes

7:1-14 This second section of Zechariah begins in similar fashion to the first, looking back on the disobedient ancestors, their stubbornness, and the display of God’s anger (1:4-6). The question still begged for an answer: Had the returnees learned the lesson of exile? Another issue under consideration was whether the temple in Jerusalem had regained its religious authority.

7:1 The second section of Zechariah is marked by a date two years later than when the word of the Lord first came to Zechariah (cp. 1:1,7). Chislev compares to our November-December thus December 7, 518 BC. Prophecies were commonly delivered first orally and written down later, sometimes many years later (Jr 36:2). In contrast to the first section of the book, which consists primarily of visions, this section is a sermon that develops themes introduced in the visions.

7:2-3 Bethel had been a center of worship for the northern ten tribes (1Kg 12:29). Some Israelites who remained in the land during the exile worshiped there, but they were willing to defer to the authority of the religious leaders in Jerusalem as long as they found evidence of God’s blessing being restored.

7:4-7 The answer to the question posed in v. 3 involved a series of convicting questions from the “Lord of Armies” (v. 8), designed to accomplish three purposes: (1) to validate Zechariah as a true prophet of the Lord, for God was speaking through him as he did through the earlier prophets; (2) to demonstrate—by taking up the same concerns as the prophets of the past (Jr 14:12; Am 5:21-23)—that God was endowing the returned community with the same authority it had before the exile; and (3) to underscore what God required in order to have his blessing.

7:8-10 The prophets typically took on the role of prosecutor, generally singling out three forms of disobedience: idolatry, empty worship, and social injustice. The latter is the focus here (cp. Is 1:17; 10:1-4; Mc 3:1-4; 6:8). Taking advantage of the poor earned the most severe punishment (Jr 5:28-29; Am 5:11-17).

7:11-12 Stubborn shoulder . . . closed . . . ears, and hearts like a rock are billboard-like metaphors for the insensitivity of the chosen people. They repeatedly refused to make the Lord their God (see notes at 1:3, 4).

7:13-14 With the parade of sinfulness summarized in vv. 4-12, God was justified in stirring up a windstorm that scattered the participants in all directions. Typical of prophetic language, judgment is expressed in hyperbole.