Atlas Biblica

    Zechariah · 14 verses

    Zechariah 7

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    A call ignored becomes an unanswered call: the people stop their ears to the LORD, and when they call, the LORD stops listening to them.

    The question behind the fastvv. 1–7

    In the fourth year of Darius, the word of the LORD comes to Zechariah. Bethel sends Sharezer and Regem-melech with their men to ask whether the long fast in the fifth month should continue. The answer widens the question rather neatly: fasting and mourning may have been for the fasters, just as eating and drinking plainly were. The old days of populous Jerusalem, inhabited Negeb, and inhabited foothills stand in the background, when the earlier prophets had already spoken.

    The ears that would not hearvv. 8–14

    The word of the LORD then turns from the calendar to conduct: true justice, loving devotion, compassion, and no oppression or inward plotting. The people answer with a wonderfully physical refusal. They turn a stubborn shoulder, stop their ears, and make their hearts like flint. The reversal follows with grim symmetry: the LORD called and they would not listen; they called and the LORD would not listen. They are scattered among unknown nations, and the pleasant land is left so desolate that nobody can come or go.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Zech 7:1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.

    2. Zech 7:2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to plead before the LORD

    3. Zech 7:3by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”

    4. Zech 7:4Then the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying,

    5. Zech 7:5“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?

    6. Zech 7:6And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?

    7. Zech 7:7Are these not the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’”

    8. Zech 7:8Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,

    9. Zech 7:9“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another.

    10. Zech 7:10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’

    11. Zech 7:11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.

    12. Zech 7:12They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.

    13. Zech 7:13And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.

    14. Zech 7:14But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 235 passages were voted onto 13 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 9Micah 6:8He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
    • 13Proverbs 1:24–28Because you refused my call, and no one took my outstretched hand,
    • 11Nehemiah 9:29You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They turned a stubborn shoulder; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.
    • 13Isaiah 1:15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
    • 13Jeremiah 14:12Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
    • 9Psalms 82:2–4“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
    • 13Jeremiah 11:11Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to bring upon them a disaster that they cannot escape. They will cry out to Me, but I will not listen to them.
    • 9Proverbs 21:3To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.
    • 122 Chronicles 36:16But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
    • 13Micah 3:4Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
    • 5Zechariah 1:12Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”
    • 7Jeremiah 17:26And people will come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, and from the foothills, the hill country, and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
    • 7Isaiah 1:16–20Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!
    • 9Jeremiah 7:5For if you really correct your ways and deeds, if you act justly toward one another,
    • 10Jeremiah 5:28They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.
    • 12Ezekiel 11:19And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,

    Onward

    Keep reading

    Next chapterZechariah 823 verses.Named hereNegebEverything the graph connects to this name.BookZechariahAll 14 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.