I scattered them with a whirlwind— This sublime metaphor is expressed by a single word in the original, ואסערם vaeisaarem. See Archbishop Newcome.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Though we have nothing here recorded of the prophet for two years, we are assured that he was well employed, Ezra 6:14 but he had no commission to publish his discourses, till on the present occasion. We have,
1. The question proposed concerning fasting. Sherezer and Regem-melech, persons of some note, with their men, are commissioned in the name of the people to go up to the house of God, that is to say, by those who were situated in the country of Judaea, at a distance from Jerusalem; to whom, in Zechariah 7:5 the answer seems to be directed. Their business at the temple was, to pray before the Lord, as the greatest of men should account it their honour to do, and to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of Hosts, whose office and business it is to explain the will of God; and the people, even the chief of them, should with reverence and attention hear the law at their mouth; for they who are sincere in their prayers, will be serious in their inquiries to know God's mind, that they may do it; and to the prophets, whom God had then in mercy raised up to them, saying, should I weep in the fifth month, on the day when the temple was burnt by the Chaldeans, separating myself for fasting and prayer, as I have done these so many years? which now they doubted whether it were proper for them to continue, their temple being in great forwardness, and a prospect of its happy re-establishment before them. Note; (1.) In cases of conscience, God's ministers should be consulted. (2.) When God afflicts, he calls to weeping and fasting: to be stupid, or unconcerned, would be to despise the chastening of the Almighty, and provoke a heavier scourge.
2. Zechariah has an answer given him for them, and it is a sharp reproof for their hypocrisy and disobedience. They had fasted, indeed, in the fifth and seventh month, in memory of the burning of the temple, and the murder of Gedaliah; but their fasts were mere ceremonious duties, without any real humiliation of soul: did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? Their eye was not single, they did not propose God's glory as their end, and therefore their services could not be acceptable, however long they had continued them; in mentioning which, they seem tacitly to upbraid God with not taking notice of them, and to value themselves on their performances: but their fasts were no more pleasing than their common meals, or their festivals, in which they ate, and drank for themselves, not giving him thanks, or doing him honour, or designing, in the use of his creatures, to glorify him, but to indulge themselves. Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited, and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? This was what they should have done, which would have prevented the desolations; and, in their fasts, these Scriptures should have been attended to, both as a matter of humiliation, and as a warning against the iniquities which had provoked God to destroy the land. But this they had neglected; and it is then to no purpose to fast, whilst our hearts continue unhumbled for the sins which are the cause of our calamities.
2nd, The examples which they had seen, and the words of the preceding prophets, should have been warnings to them.
1. The prophet puts them in mind what had been the subject of the former prophets' discourses. Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, impartially administering justice without respect of persons, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother, under all his wants of body or soul, assisting him with our advice, our money, our person, and our prayers; forgiving every provocation, and bearing his infirmities. And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, whose helpless state should plead for them; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart; neither harbour a design of mischief, nor entertain an evil surmise concerning him.
2. He reminds them of the disobedience of their fathers. They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, disobedient and refractory against all the warnings given them, and stopped their ears that they should not hear, not deigning so much as to hearken to God's messages. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, impenetrable to conviction, neither regarding the law of Moses, nor the words of his divinely-commissioned messengers the prophets.
3. For these things came a great wrath upon them, from the Lord of Hosts; and since they would not hear his calls, God refused to hear their cries in the day of their calamity; scattered them among the nations, laid their pleasant land desolate; a righteous judgment upon them for their obstinacy, impenitence, and hardness of heart. Note: (1.) They who in prosperity set at nought God's threatenings, will cry too late for mercy when it is the time of judgment. (2.) Sinners have only themselves to blame for their eternal ruin.