Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Zechariah 7:3 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 3. 3And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse states the question about continuing fifth-month mourning and abstinence practiced for many years.
Read It With
- Zechariah 7:1-7
Read Zechariah 7:3 with 7:1-7. This verse states the question about continuing fifth-month mourning and abstinence practiced for many years. The complete unit establishes this movement: The community's long religious discipline is not self-authenticating: the LORD asks whether fasting and feasting were directed to him and turns the question toward the justice warnings ignored before Jerusalem's fall.
Why This Verse Appears Here
With the temple rebuilding, ritual continuity becomes a live question; the answer exposes motive before deciding the fast's future. Within that movement, this verse states the question about continuing fifth-month mourning and abstinence practiced for many years.
What Remains True
Long grief practices can be reviewed without contempt for the grief they carry.
How It Can Shape Life
- Consult those most affected before changing a communal lament.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Zechariah 7:1-7 — Whom Were the Fasts Really For?Sources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Zechariah 7:1-7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Zechariah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, speaker changes, repeated formulas, names, and the base text behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Zech.xml, 7:1-7
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Zechariah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual, literary, historical, and canonical-reception notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Zechariah PDF, printed pp. 1793-1794, translation and notes on 7:1-7
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Zechariah
Rex Mason
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book movement, Persian and later horizons, literary boundaries, composition, and material alternatives.
Exact location: Mason, 'Zechariah,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 613, discussion of 7:1-7
Open source ↗