Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Zechariah
Chapter 7: Did Ye At All Fast Unto Me?
A delegation comes to ask a religious question: should they keep on observing the fast that mourned the temple's destruction, now that the temple is being rebuilt? God's answer goes straight past the ritual to the heart: 'When ye fasted and mourned... did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?' Their fasting had been for themselves, not for God. What He had always wanted was not empty ceremony but a changed life: 'Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor.' Their fathers had refused this word, making 'their hearts as an adamant stone' so they could not hear, and judgment fell. The chapter is a searching lesson that God looks past our religious observances to whether we truly worship Him and truly love our neighbor.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Zechariah chapter 7, the question about fasting and God's call to true religion. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. The chapter exposes empty ritual and calls for justice, mercy, and a soft heart. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Should We Keep Fasting?
A delegation asks about a long-kept fast.
Unto Me, Even to Me?
God asks whose the fasting really was.
Judgment and Mercy
What God always wanted, not ritual.
Hearts as Adamant Stone
The fathers who would not hear.
Did Ye At All Fast Unto Me? (Zechariah 7:1-7)
When a delegation asks whether to keep mourning with fasts, God probes their hearts, revealing that their fasting and feasting alike had been for themselves, not for Him, and points them back to the words of the earlier prophets.
Did Not Ye Eat for Yourselves?
"And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu; When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?"
Hebrew Study
"did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" God's question cuts to the motive of worship. For seventy years they had kept fasts mourning the temple's fall, but God asks whether they had ever fasted "unto me, even to me." The doubling, "unto me, even to me," is emphatic: was I really the object of your fasting, or was it a self-focused ritual, self-pity dressed as piety? A fast can be entirely about ourselves, our grief, our tradition, our sense of virtue, without ever being toward God. The same searching question hangs over all our religious acts: are they truly "unto Him"? God is not impressed by the outward act; He looks at whether it is offered to Him from the heart. "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth... but their heart is far from me" (Matthew 15:8).
"did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?" God extends the point beyond fasting to eating and drinking, to all of life. If their fasting was for themselves, so was their feasting: everything was self-centered, done "for yourselves." The issue is not fasting versus feasting but self versus God. The gospel calls us to the opposite orientation in everything: "whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). The question is not merely what religious acts we perform, but for whom we live. A life lived "for yourselves," even a religious one, misses God entirely; a life lived "unto Him" turns even eating and drinking into worship.
Explanation
Two years into the temple rebuilding, a delegation comes with a practical religious question. For seventy years, since the temple's destruction, the people had kept a fast in the fifth month to mourn it. Now that the temple is rising again, "Should I weep in the fifth month... as I have done these so many years?" Is the mourning-fast still needed?
God does not answer yes or no; He answers the heart behind the question. "When ye fasted and mourned... did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" Their long fasting had not really been for God at all. And the same self-centeredness marked their ordinary living: "when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves?" Whether fasting or feasting, they had lived for themselves. Then God points them back to the message they had always ignored: "Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets?" The old prophets had said the same thing, God wants a changed life, not empty ritual, and the people had never listened.
Gospel Focus
"Did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" is a question for all our religion. It is entirely possible to keep up fasts, services, traditions, and observances for years, and never truly do them "unto God." Ritual can become self-focused, about our grief, our habit, our sense of doing the right thing, while God Himself is scarcely in view. God searches past the act to the heart: is this offered to Me, or to yourself? "The LORD looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). Before you ask whether to keep a religious practice, ask the deeper question God asks: is it truly unto Him?
And notice that God widens the lens from fasting to all of life: "did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?" The real issue is not which religious acts we perform but for whom we live. The gospel reorients everything toward God, "whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." A believer's whole life, work and rest, eating and drinking, joy and sorrow, becomes worship when it is lived "unto Him." Do not settle for a religion of observances done "for yourselves"; let Christ turn your whole life Godward, so that everything you do is truly "unto me, even to me."
They Made Their Hearts as an Adamant Stone (Zechariah 7:8-14)
God recalls the message the earlier prophets gave, to do justice, show mercy, and not oppress the vulnerable, and how the fathers hardened their hearts against it like flint, so that when they later cried to God, He would not hear, and scattered them among the nations.
Execute True Judgment, and Shew Mercy
"And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts: But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate."
Hebrew Study
"Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother." Here is what God always wanted, and it is not ritual but righteousness of life. "Execute true judgment" (justice in dealing), "shew mercy and compassions" (tender-hearted kindness), and "oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor", care for the four classes of the most vulnerable, who had no protector but God. This is the same summary of true religion the prophets always gave, "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8), and "pure religion and undefiled" is "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" (James 1:27). God's true worship shows itself not chiefly at the altar but in how we treat the weak. The Lord Jesus rebuked those who tithed herbs but "omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith" (Matthew 23:23).
"they made their hearts as an adamant stone." "Adamant" (shamir) is flint or the hardest stone, so hard it could not be scratched. The fathers deliberately hardened their hearts "lest they should hear", they did not merely fail to listen; they made themselves unable to. And the result was terrible reciprocity: "as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear." A heart hardened against God's word eventually finds God's ear closed to its cry. This is the danger of resisting the Spirit: the heart grows harder each time it refuses, "to day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews 3:15). God offers instead to do the very opposite for us, "I will take away the stony heart... and I will give you an heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). The choice is between a heart of adamant that cannot hear, and a heart of flesh softened by grace.
Explanation
God spells out plainly what the earlier prophets had always required: "Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor." Not fasting but justice, mercy, and care for the vulnerable, that was, and is, the heart of true religion. Even the inward life was included: "let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart."
But the fathers' response was total refusal. They "refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder" (like an ox refusing the yoke), "and stopped their ears," and worse, "made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear." Their deafness was deliberate. So "came a great wrath from the LORD," and the judgment fit the crime: "as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear." God "scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations," and left "the pleasant land desolate." The exile the delegation's fast had mourned was the direct fruit of hearts too hard to hear. God's answer to their question about fasting is really a warning: do not repeat your fathers' deafness.
Gospel Focus
God's summary of what He wants, "Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions... oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor", is the recurring heart of true religion, and it searches us still. God is far more concerned with how we treat the vulnerable than with how many religious observances we keep. Justice in our dealings, tender mercy toward others, and active care for the weak, the widow, the orphan, the outsider, the poor, are the marks of a faith God accepts, "pure religion and undefiled before God." If our worship does not reach our treatment of the least, it is the very ritual God questioned in the first half of the chapter.
And take solemn warning from the hearts "as an adamant stone." The fathers hardened themselves against God's word until they could not hear, and then found that God would not hear their cry. This is the peril of repeatedly resisting God's voice: the heart grows harder, and a day can come when the ear that would not hear finds the door shut. "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." But the gospel offers the opposite of adamant: God promises, "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." What we cannot soften ourselves, His grace can. Do not make your heart flint against His word; while it is still "to day," receive the word, do the justice and mercy He asks, and let Him give you a heart of flesh.
Chapter 7 in Review
Zechariah 7 answers a question about fasting by exposing the heart. When asked whether to keep the mourning-fast, God probes: "did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" Their fasting, like their feasting, had been "for yourselves," not for God. What He always wanted was not ritual but righteousness: "Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions... oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor." Their fathers had refused this word, making "their hearts as an adamant stone" so they could not hear, and so, when they cried, God would not hear, and scattered them among the nations, the very exile their fast now mourned.
For the Apostolic reader this chapter is a searching lesson on true worship. God looks past our religious observances to two questions: are they truly "unto Him," offered from the heart, and do they issue in justice and mercy toward others, especially the vulnerable? A religion of self-focused ritual that leaves the widow and the poor oppressed is the very thing God rejects. And the chapter warns against the deadly hardening of the heart: refuse God's word long enough and the heart becomes flint, unable to hear, until God's ear too is closed. But the gospel promises the reverse, a heart of flesh in place of the stony heart. Worship God from the heart, love your neighbor in deed, and while it is "to day," keep your heart soft to His voice.
- God searches the motive of worship: "did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?" (7:5; 1 Samuel 16:7).
- The real issue is for whom we live; do all "to the glory of God" (7:6; 1 Corinthians 10:31).
- True religion is justice, mercy, and care for the vulnerable, not empty ritual (7:9-10; Micah 6:8; James 1:27).
- Refusing God's word hardens the heart "as an adamant stone" (7:11-12; Hebrews 3:15).
- A heart that will not hear God may find God will not hear it (7:13; Proverbs 1:24-28).
- God offers a heart of flesh in place of the stony heart (Ezekiel 36:26).
Questions for Reflection
- Are your religious practices truly "unto God," or have they become about yourself?
- Does your worship issue in real justice and mercy toward the vulnerable?
- Is there a word from God you have been hardening your heart against?
- Will you, while it is "to day," ask God for a heart of flesh?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). Key terms: the fasts of the fifth and seventh months mourned the temple's destruction and Gedaliah's murder (2 Kings 25:8-9, 25); shamir ("adamant," flint, verse 12). Worship God searches for heart and motive: 1 Samuel 15:22; 16:7; Isaiah 1:11-17; 58:3-7; Amos 5:21-24; Matthew 6:16-18; 15:8-9. Living unto God in all things: Romans 14:6-8; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17, 23. True religion, justice, mercy, and care for the vulnerable: Exodus 22:21-24; Deuteronomy 10:18-19; Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23; James 1:27; 2:14-17. The hardened, stony heart and the danger of not hearing: Exodus 8:15; 2 Chronicles 36:15-16; Proverbs 1:24-31; 29:1; Jeremiah 7:24-26; Hebrews 3:7-15; 4:7. The promise of a heart of flesh: Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26-27. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The fasting question and God's probe of the heart, "did ye at all fast unto me?": Zechariah 7:1-7; 1 Corinthians 10:31.
- True religion required, and the hardened hearts that would not hear: Zechariah 7:8-14; Micah 6:8; Ezekiel 36:26.