Zechariah 7:5
“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?”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →God presses a searching question: across seventy years of fasting, were they fasting for Him, or for themselves?
What Does Zechariah 7:5 Mean?
The LORD widens the audience from the small delegation to all the people and the priests. He recalls two fasts, the fifth month for the temple's destruction and the seventh for the murder of Gedaliah, kept faithfully through the seventy years of exile.
The repeated phrase, even to me, lands like a gentle hammer. Religious observance can drift into self-focus, a mourning that comforts the mourner rather than honoring God. The Lord is not impressed by the length of a tradition; He looks for a heart turned toward Him. He asks every worshiper the same question still: is this for Me, or for you?
In the Original Language
tsum (צוּם), 'fast' -- to abstain from food as an act of grief or devotion before God.