Zechariah 7:2-3

Zechariah 7:2-3

[2] When they had sent  Sherezer  and Regemmelech,  and their men,  to pray  before  [3] And 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? 

What does Zechariah 7:2-3 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Israelites who lived in Bethel, about10 miles north of Jerusalem (cf. Ezra 2:28; Nehemiah 7:32; Nehemiah 11:31), sent two representatives to ask the priests and prophets in the capital about how they should worship the Lord (cf. Malachi 1:9). The names of the two ambassadors were Babylonian suggesting that they had been born in Babylonia during the Captivity. Another view is that a Jew living in Babylon named Bethel-Sharezar (lit. house of God-protect the king), whose title was Regem-melech (lit. king"s friend) indicating his royal authority (from Darius), came with his men to pose the question. [1] A slightly different translation yields the view that Bethel-Sharezar sent Regem-melech and his men. Whoever these men were, they wanted to know if they should continue to weep and abstain from food (i.e, to fast), which had become traditional but which the Mosaic Law did not require. The only fast that the Mosaic Law prescribed was on the Day of Atonement ( Leviticus 16:29; Leviticus 23:27-32).
"Coming as they did from a place long associated with apostate worship ( 1 Kings 12:29-33; 2 Kings 10:29; Jeremiah 48:13; Amos 3:14; Amos 4:4; Amos 7:13), these men would be particularly concerned to determine orthodox praxis on behalf of those who sent them." [2]
There were four fasts that the Jews in exile had instituted to commemorate various events connected with the destruction of Jerusalem in586 B.C. (cf. Zechariah 8:19). The one in the fifth month memorialized the destruction of the temple (cf. 2 Kings 25:8-10). [3] Since the temple was almost complete (cf. Ezra 6:16), did the Lord want His people to continue to fast? The people knew that the captivity would last70 years ( Jeremiah 25:11-12), and68 of these had already past. It seemed to them that fasting over the destruction of the temple might be inappropriate since the Lord had enabled them to rebuild the temple and reestablish worship. The question was a reasonable one.
"What may have appeared to be an innocent question about the propriety of fasting was instead a question fraught with hypocrisy, as YHWH"s response puts beyond any doubt. It therefore appears that the query to Zechariah by the Bethelites may not have been so much a matter of piety as it was of posturing. May it not be that the delegation was trying more to impress the prophet than to gain instruction from him?" [4]