Zechariah 7:3
“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?”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →The delegation asks the priests and prophets whether they should keep the long-standing fast that mourned Jerusalem's fall.
What Does Zechariah 7:3 Mean?
The fifth-month fast commemorated the burning of the temple by Babylon decades earlier. With the temple now rising again, the people sincerely wonder whether this season of weeping still applies, and they bring the question to the priests and prophets for a ruling.
Their question is honest, but it focuses on the outward act: should we keep weeping? God will redirect them from the calendar to the condition of the heart. It is a holy thing to ask what the Lord requires, and a humbling thing to discover He cares less about the ritual than about the soul performing it.