people have therefore no need to fear, if they are only diligent in practising truth, righteousness, and love to their neighbour. God required the same of the fathers (Zec 7:9-10). Mishpat shâlōm is such an administration of justice as tends to promote peace and establish concord between those who are at strife. “In your gates,” where courts of justice were held (cf. Deu 21:19; Deu 22:15, etc.). The את before כּל־אלּה in Zec 8:17 may be accounted for from a kind of attraction, inasmuch as by the insertion of אשׁר the object “all this” is separated from the verb, to bring it out with emphasis: “As for all this, it is what I hate.” Compare the similar use of ‘ēth in Hag 2:5, and Ewald, §277, d.
Verses 18-19
The last word of God gives, in connection with what precedes, the direct answer to the inquiry concerning the fast-days, and consists of three sayings, Zec 8:19, Zec 8:20, and Zec 8:23, of which the second and third explain the contents of the first more clearly. Zec 8:18 is the same as Zec 8:1 and Zec 8:7 and Zec 4:8. Zec 8:19. “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The fasting of the fourth, and the fasting of the fifth, and the fasting of the seventh, and the fasting of the tenth (months), will become pleasure and joy to the house of Judah, and good feasts. But truth and peace ye should love.” On the fast-days mentioned, compare the exposition of Zec 7:3. These fast-days the Lord will turn into days of joy and cheerful feast-days - namely, by bestowing upon them such a fulness of salvation, that Judah will forget to commemorate the former mournful events, and will only have occasion to rejoice in the blessings of grace bestowed upon it by God; though only when the condition mentioned in Zec 8:16 and Zec 8:17 has been fulfilled.[1]
Verses 20-22
Zec 8:20. “Thus saith Jehovah
- ↑ Luther aptly observes: “Keep only what I command, and let fasting alone. Yea, if ye keep my commandments, not only shall such fasts be over and come to an end; but because I will do so much good to Jerusalem, all the affliction, for which ye have chosen and kept such fasting, shall be so forgotten, that ye will be transported with joy when ye think of your fasting, and of the heart's grief on account of which ye fasted for the time,” etc.
