A Call to Repentance

Zechariah's first word is carefully dated in the reign of Darius and begins with a sober reminder: the LORD was very angry with the fathers of this community. That historical memory becomes a present summons. The people are not to imitate those earlier generations who ignored the prophets' calls to turn from evil ways. Though fathers and prophets alike have passed away, the LORD's words did not perish; they overtook the disobedient exactly as announced. The paragraph therefore turns the memory of exile into an argument for immediate repentance and covenant responsiveness.

I¹n the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying: ²“The LORD was very angry with your fathers. ³So 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.’ ⁴Do 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.’ ⁵Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever? ⁶But 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.’”