Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 100:398 (Apr 1943)
Article: Exegetical Studies in Zechariah Part 11
Author: Charles Lee Feinberg

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Exegetical Studies in Zechariah
Part 11

Charles Lee Feinberg

(Continued from the October-December Number, 1942)

III. The Question and the Answer Concerning Fasting, 7:1-8:28.

e. The Abrogation of the Fasts, 8:18-23.

Now that Zechariah has turned the gaze of his contemporaries in Israel to the vital and all-important matter of their proper heart attitude and life conduct toward the Lord and their coreligionists, he simply and distinctly answers the question first posited to him by the deputation from Bethel. They had plainly asked, “Shall I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?” The very use of the singular reveals how united was the nation in asking and how pointedly the matter affected all alike. The prophet now answers: “And the word of Jehovah of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall become to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and good feasts; but love ye truth and peace” (vv. 18, 19). The question of the embassy had included only the fasts of the fifth and the seventh months, but God’s remedy and promise relate to all the fasts. Through the mouth of Zechariah God promises that He will restore the years that the canker-worm hath eaten. Well had Amos warned the nation in the days before the Captivity when they were bent upon sin: “And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the

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mourning for an only son, and the end of it as a bitter day” (Amos 8:10). Isaiah was projected into the far distant future by the spirit of prophecy to reveal that the work of the Messiah would be directed to comforting the mourners of Zion, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, to make the people of Jerusalem a rejoicing, so that the voice of weeping and the voice of distress would not be heard in her any more. Cf. Isaiah 61:2, 3, 7; 65:18, 19. Zechariah and Isaiah speak of the same time and their witness agrees. The answer ends with an exhortation to love truth and peace. The objects האמת ...