Zechariah 7:6

Zec 7:6 And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat [for yourselves], and drink [for yourselves]?

Ver. 6. And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink] q.d. In all your actions, natural, civil, recreative, religious, you should have sought, served, and set up me, you should have done all to the glory of God, as saith the apostle; you should have eaten, drank, and slept eternal life, as it was said of a certain Scotch divine. "The way of life is above to the wise," Pro 15:24, he goes a higher way than his neighbour, who contents himself with a natural use of the creature, but he can extract a spiritual. Grace is called the divine nature, as that which, elixir-like, by contraction turns all into the same property with itself. Meat makes us not acceptable to God, 1Co 8:8. The kingdom of God consists not in meats and drinks, Rom 14:17. Howbeit the Israelites were commanded, as to fast, so to feast before the Lord; that is, in faith and obedience; and to do everything from the heart, as unto him. This these Jews did not; and are therefore worthily blamed. From their feeding themselves without fear of God is concluded their no respect to him in their fasts and holy services: since true goodness is ever like itself, and carries a uniformity in all proceedings.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Did ye not eat and drink for your own commodity and necessity, and so likewise ye did abstain according to your own fantasies, and not after the prescript of my Law.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

did not ye eat for yourselves?--literally, "Is it not ye who eat?" that is, it is not unto Me and My glory. It tends no more to My glory, your feasting than your fasting.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. And when ye did eat] They had not observed those fasts as they should have done. They deplored the loss of their temple, and its riches, &c., but they did not humble themselves because of those iniquities which had brought the displeasure of God upon them, their temple, and their city.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

By saying, that to themselves they did eat and drink, he intimates that to eat and to drink, or to abstain from eating and drinking, are things wholly unconnected with the worship of God. Another sense may indeed be elicited, — that the Jews did eat as heathens did: and there will be in this case an indirect reproof, — that they sought to pacify God only twice in the year, and that during the rest of the time they were heedless and indulged themselves in excesses. We ought indeed to bear in mind what Paul says, that

“whether we eat or drink, all things ought to be done to the praise of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31.)

The law also expressly commanded the Jews to “feast before the Lord,” that is, not to taste food without thanksgiving, as though God were present. When, therefore, the Jews fasted themselves without any regard to God, it is no wonder that their fastings where rejected; for their course was not consistent. For though the godly do not always fast, yet while they partake most freely of meat and drink, they turn not away their thoughts from God, but on the contrary rejoice before him. They therefore eat and drink to God, as well as abstain on God’s account. But the Prophet shows here that the Jews did eat to themselves, and that hence their fasting was not regarded before God. This latter sense is not unsuitable: but as to the subject itself, it is enough for us to know, that the Prophet, as he had to deal with hypocrites, ridicules their superstition in their fastings, inasmuch as they thought that these were expiations by which their sins were blotted out, and that if they abstained for a day or two from meat and drink, God was thereby pacified.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

6. did eat and … did drink] Rather, eat and drink, as R. V.

did not ye eat for yourselves, &c.?] Lit. is it not you who are eating, and you who are drinking? i.e. is it not simply an act terminating upon yourselves, which in no way affects Me? Comp. 1Co_8:8.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets,.... As Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others; suggesting that it would have been much better for them to have regarded the exhortations and instructions which the Lord sent them by his servants, which would have prevented their captivity; and so would have had no occasion of fasting and mourning: for those prophecies were delivered out

when Jerusalem was inhabited, and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her; when Jerusalem, and the cities about it, were full of people, and enjoyed all the blessings of life in great plenty; and which would have continued, had they attended to the exhortations, cautions, and warnings given them:

when men inhabited the south and the plain? the land of Judea, as the Misnic (x) doctors say, was divided into three parts; the mountainous part, the plain, and the valley. Jerusalem was in the mountainous part, and these are the other two; and not only those parts of the land which were hilly, and those cities that were encompassed with mountains, were in safety and prosperity; but those also that were in the champaign country, and in the low valleys. The "south" was that part of the land of Canaan formerly inhabited by the Amalekites, and which they invaded when David was at Ziklag, Num 13:29. Sometimes it was called Negeb, as here; and sometimes Daroma, as frequently in the Jewish writings; in which Judea is often called the south, with respect to Galilee; for they distinguish between the inhabitants of Galilee and the inhabitants of the south country: and say, a disciple might intercalate the year for Galilee, but not for the south, i.e. Judea. It reached from Eleutheropolis to the south of the land, eighteen or twenty miles: it was distinguished by the Jews (y) into upper and nether Daroma, or south country: the upper consisted of the hilly part of it; the nether of the plain; and by Jerom (z) mention is made of interior Daroma, by which there should be an exterior one. The "plain", or "Sephela", was all the champaign country, near to Eleutherepolis, to the north and west; and so the above writer (a) says it was called in his times: now each of these were well inhabited; Daroma, or the southern part; hence it is frequent, in Jewish writings (b), to read of such a Rabbi of Daroma, or the south, as R. Jacob, R. Simlai, and others; and of the elders of the south (c); and so Jerom speaks of Eremmon, and Duma, large villages, in his days, in Daroma or the south; the one sixteen, the other seventeen miles from Eleutheropolis; and of Ether, Jether, and Jethan, one of which was eighteen, and another twenty miles from it (d); and in the Apocrypha:

"Simon also set up Adida in Sephela, and made it strong with gates and bars.'' (1 Maccabees 12:38)

mention is made of Adida in Sephela, fortified, by Simon; and in which also were various other places well stored with inhabitants. This expresses the happy and safe state the Jews were in before their captivity, and in which they would have remained, had they hearkened to the words of the Lord.

(x) Misn. Sheviith, c. 9. sect. 2. (y) T. Hieros. Maaaser Sheni, fol. 56. 3. & Sanhedrin, fol. 18. 4. (z) De locis Hebr. fol. 91. C. & 92. I. (a) Ibid. fol. 94. M. (b) T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 2. 2. & 11. 4. & Succah, fol. 53. 4. (c) T. Hieros. Erubin, fol. 23. 3. (d) Ut supra, fol. 90. K. & 91. C. & 92. I.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And when ye eat and when ye drink, is it not ye who eat and ye who drink? - Conversely now that, after your return, ye feast for joy, this is no religious act; ye have all the good of it, there is no thanksgiving to God. Contrary to the apostle’s saying, “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glow of God” 1Co 10:31. “He eateth and drinketh to himself, who receiveth the nourishments of the body, which are the common gifts of the Creator, without the needy. And anyone fasts to himself, if he doth not give to the poor what for the time he withdraweth from himself, but keepeth it to be thereafter offered to his appetite. Hence, it is said by Joel, sanctify a fast. For to ‘sanctify a fast’ is to show an abstinence worthy of God through other good deeds. Let anger cease, quarrels be hushed. For in vain is the flesh worn, if the mind is not refrained from evil pleasures, since the Lord says by the prophet, “Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate ...” Isa 57:3-4.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Yourselves, to gratify the senses more than from necessity, and without doing it for God’s glory. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

I was as little minded by you in your fasts as in your feasts, and I was as little pleased with your fasts as feasts; self was all in both, you looked no higher. Such fasting commends none to God; you had not been the worse if you had forborne such fasts, nor are you the better for such ill-managed abstinence.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

When ye did eat, etc.; better, when ye eat and when ye drink. As in your fasts, so in your rejoicings and your daily life. Did not ye eat for yourselves, etc.? literally, Is it not ye who are eating and ye who are drinking? There the matter ends; it is self that is concerned, and there is no reference to God. (comp. 1Co_8:8 1Co_10:31)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For yourselves - I was as little minded by you in your fasts, as in your feasts.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And when you eat and when you drink And, if you do not fast, that, too, means nothing to Me. Are not the food and the drink for your own pleasure?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.