Zechariah 1:5
3 So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’
4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the LORD.
Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6 But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo.
This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
- KJV
- Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
- WEB
- Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
- ASV
- Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
- DARBY
- Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
- BLB
- Your⁺ fathers, where [are] they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
- ÅB
- Deres fedre, hvor er de? Og profetene, kan de leve til evig tid?
- OTB
- "Dine fedre, hvor er de? Og profetene, lever de for evig?
- B1930
- Eders fedre, hvor er de? Og profetene, kan de leve til evig tid?
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
2 Peter 3:2–4
by recalling what was foretold by the holy prophets and commanded by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
Read in contextEcclesiastes 12:5
when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels— for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.
Read in contextPsalms 90:10
The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Read in contextHebrews 9:27
Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
Read in contextEcclesiastes 12:7
before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Read in contextJob 14:10–12
But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
Read in contextEcclesiastes 1:4
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
Read in contextJohn 8:52
“Now we know that You have a demon!” declared the Jews. “Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet You say that anyone who keeps Your word will never taste death.
Read in context