Lectionary Calendar
Monday, September 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 20 / Ordinary 25
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

New Life Version

Zechariah 1:5

"Where are your fathers now? And the men who spoke for Me, do they live forever?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Death;   The Topic Concordance - Disobedience;   Hearing;   Rendering;   Servants;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Ancestors;   Apocalyptic literature;   Zechariah, book of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Zechariah, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Zechariah, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Apocalyptic Literature;   Zechariah, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Zechariah, Prophecy of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Joshua (3);   Zechariah, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Where are your ancestors now? And do the prophets live forever?
Hebrew Names Version
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
King James Version (1611)
Your fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, doe they liue for euer?
King James Version
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
English Standard Version
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
New American Standard Bible
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
New Century Version
Your ancestors are dead, and those prophets didn't live forever.
Amplified Bible
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Geneva Bible (1587)
your fathers, where are they? and doe the Prophets liue for euer?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Legacy Standard Bible
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Berean Standard Bible
Where are your forefathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Contemporary English Version
Where are your ancestors now? Not even prophets live forever.
Complete Jewish Bible
"Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Darby Translation
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
Easy-to-Read Version
"Your ancestors are gone, and those prophets did not live forever.
George Lamsa Translation
Your fathers, where are they? And my prophets, do they live for ever?
Good News Translation
Your ancestors and those prophets are no longer alive.
Lexham English Bible
"Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Literal Translation
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
American Standard Version
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
Bible in Basic English
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they go on living for ever?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
What is nowe become of your forefathers? & do the prophetes liue for euer?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Where are your fathers, and the prophets? Will they live for ever?
English Revised Version
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
World English Bible
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Where ben youre fadris and profetis? whether thei schulen lyue with outen ende?
Update Bible Version
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?
Webster's Bible Translation
Your fathers, where [are] they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
New English Translation
"As for your ancestors, where are they? And did the prophets live forever?
New King James Version
"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
New Living Translation
"Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead.
New Revised Standard
Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Your fathers, where are they? and, the prophets, to times age-abiding, do they live?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, shall they live always?
Revised Standard Version
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?
Young's Literal Translation
Your fathers -- where [are] they? And the prophets -- to the age do they live?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
What is now become of youre forefathers and the prophetes? are they yet still alyue?
THE MESSAGE
"And where are your ancestors now? Dead and buried. And the prophets who preached to them? Also dead and buried. But the Message that my servants the prophets spoke, that isn't dead and buried. That Message did its work on your ancestors, did it not? It woke them up and they came back, saying, ‘He did what he said he would do, sure enough. We didn't get by with a thing.'"

Contextual Overview

1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the Word of the Lord came to Zechariah the man of God, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, 2 "The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 So tell them, ‘The Lord of All says, "Return to Me, that I may return to you. 4 Do not be like your fathers. The men who spoke for Me in the past told them, ‘The Lord of All says, "Return from your sinful ways and from your sinful works."' But they did not listen to Me," says the Lord. 5 "Where are your fathers now? And the men who spoke for Me, do they live forever? 6 I gave My Words and My Laws to your fathers through My servants who spoke for Me. But they would not listen and so they were punished. Then they were sorry for their sins and said, ‘The Lord of All has punished us for our ways and our works, as He said He would.'"'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 14:10-12, Psalms 90:10, Ecclesiastes 1:4, Ecclesiastes 9:1-3, Ecclesiastes 12:5, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Acts 13:36, Hebrews 7:23, Hebrews 7:24, Hebrews 9:27, 2 Peter 3:2-4

Reciprocal: Genesis 48:21 - Behold Deuteronomy 18:22 - if the thing Joshua 24:33 - died 1 Samuel 9:6 - all that he saith 1 Kings 16:34 - General 2 Kings 13:14 - he died Ezra 9:7 - Since the days Psalms 49:9 - That he Jeremiah 9:14 - which Jeremiah 25:5 - Turn Jeremiah 36:28 - General Lamentations 3:42 - thou Lamentations 5:7 - and are John 6:49 - and are John 8:52 - Abraham

Cross-References

Genesis 1:8
Then God called the open space Heaven. There was evening and there was morning, the second day.
Genesis 1:13
There was evening and there was morning, the third day.
Genesis 1:19
There was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
Genesis 1:23
There was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
Genesis 1:31
God saw all that He had made and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 8:22
While the earth lasts, planting time and gathering time, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not end."
Psalms 19:2
Day to day they speak. And night to night they show much learning.
Psalms 74:16
The day is Yours. And the night is Yours. You have set the light and the sun in their places.
Psalms 104:20
You make darkness and it becomes night. Then all the wild animals among the trees come out.
Isaiah 45:7
I make light and I make darkness. I bring good and I make trouble. I am the Lord Who does all these things.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Your fathers, where [are] they?.... They are not in the land of the living; they perished by the sword of the Chaldeans, or died in captivity:

and the prophets, do they live for ever? meaning either the false prophets, as Hananiah and Shemaiah, Jeremiah 28:17 or the true prophets of the Lord; and the words may be considered as a prevention of an objection the people might make, taken from their prophets dying in common with their fathers; and so the Targum paraphrases them, "and if you should say, the prophets, do they live for ever?" which is followed by Jarchi, and embraced by many interpreters: the answer is, it is true they died; but then their words live, and have had their full accomplishment.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Your fathers, where are they? - The abrupt solemnity of the question seems to imply an unexpected close of life which cut short their hopes, plans, promises to self. “When they said, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them” 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Yet not they only but the prophets too, who ministered God’s Word to them, these also being human beings, passed away, some of them before their time as people, by the martyr’s death. Many of them saw not their own words fulfilled. But God’s word which they spake, being from God, passed not away.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 1:5. Your fathers, where are they?Israel has been destroyed and ruined in the bloody wars with the Assyrians; and Judah, in those with the Chaldeans.

The prophets, do they live for ever? — They also, who spoke unto your fathers, are dead; but their predictions remain; and the events, which have taken place according to those predictions, prove that God sent them.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile