Zechariah 1:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Your fathers, where are they?— This question signifies that the sepulchre of their fathers was not in Judaea, because they died captives in a foreign land; which was a great disgrace to the children. The question therefore, Where are they? does not mean that they were dead; for it could not by any means be considered as a punishment that the fathers of those whom Zechariah addresses were dead, after the space of seventy years. Prophets had never been wanting in Israel, till the time of the return from the Babylonish captivity. After Zechariah and Malachi, they ceased till Christ was born. The prophet therefore, by the next question, And the prophets, &c. implies, that in a short time it should come to pass, that God would send no more prophets to his people. See Houbigant.