Zechariah 7:7

"When you eat and when you drink, don’t you eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?"

Key Reflection

Zechariah 7:7 challenges the Israelites to reflect on their motives for feasting, asking whether their enjoyment of food and drink is truly a sacred act or merely self-indulgence. This verse highlights a critical moment in post-exilic history when the people had returned to Jerusalem and were rejoicing in their restored freedom and prosperity, yet Zechariah warns them against mistaking personal pleasure for genuine religious observance.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Should ye “not hear” the words, or, Know ye “not the words?” The verb is presupposed in the emphatic question, as in, “Shall I, the blood of these men?”2 Samuel 23:17. David omits the word “drink” for abhorrence. By the former prophets -Isaiah and Jeremiah , “when Jerusalem was dwelling abidingly,” at ease, as the whole world then was, except herself, “and the south and the low-country,” both belonging to Judah, were inhabited. The restoration then was still very incomplete, since he contrasts their then condition with the present, as inhabited or no.

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