V. 1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darm, that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, which is called Chislev.
So far the prophet has preached for two years and brought the people back to the right faith, comforting them that they should be safe from their enemies from the north, because two chariots are to go there to bring the Spirit of God through the gospel, as well as to all the world. Now, however, there is a case or question of self-chosen good works, so that one may see how there is nothing to suffer apart from the word of God; and such a question must come, because the prophet is still alive and teaches, so that it may be publicly and powerfully condemned, as an example that all our works, which we choose, however good they may seem, are of no use, and only the pure word of God is to be adhered to. For this plague is attached to all human doctrines, that it makes God's commandment void or low, and makes itself high and great, as we shall see here in this example. The Jews begin the year in March around their Easter, according to which the ninth moon is with them, which we call the winter moon, and they in Hebrew Chislev.
V. 2.3 When Sarezer and Regemmelech and their men sent to Bethlehem, 1) to make supplication before the Lord, and to tell the priests that were about the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets: Shall I also weep in the fifth month, and faint, 2) as I have done these things many years?
(2) Four fasts are reported in this chapter, namely, the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months. Which fasts the Jews had accepted, and chosen and imposed upon themselves, because of four great calamities (as they say) that had befallen them. For in the fourth month the city of Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians and starved out, and abandoned by the contentious citizens, Jer. 52, 6. but in the fifth month the temple, castle and whole city were burned, 2 Kings 25, 9. and in the seventh month the centurion Gedaliah 3) was strangled, and the people were brought into Egypt, 2 Kings 25, 25. In the tenth month the people of Egypt were killed.
1) At that time, Luther did not take Beth-El from the temple, but from the idol place Beth-El, so that first to Beth-El had been sent, but only afterwards to Jerusalem. Compare the following relation.
2) That is, to practice strict discipline, to mortify the body. In Latin: udstinodo ----- fast. Luther himself gives the explanation of this word in tz 3.
3) In the original and in the editions: Godolias.
But such a rumor and lamentation was brought to Babylon to the captive Jews who were there, and it was proclaimed, Ezek. 33:21 So these people ask, because the temple is being rebuilt, whether they should continue fasting for the fifth moon or stop? For they had vowed and taken it for a commandment; therefore we must here again speak of vows and laws.
(3) And they show two things: one, that they fasted; the other, that they chastened, that is, abstained from good morsels, and sweet meat and drink, especially from wine and strong drink, as Numbers 6:3 and following. is written of the discipline, according to which law and example they had accepted such discipline and avoidance of wine, just as they had accepted fasting according to the example of the seventh moon, as Moses says in the Feast of Atonement, Deut. 16, 29. ff. Now see here, fasting and discipline are good and not evil works, accepted for no evil cause, for which they were praised and commanded among the Jews; but hear how God rejects and condemns them, saying:
V.4-6. And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Tell all the people of the land, and the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, these seventy years, did ye fast unto me? Or when ye did eat and drink, did ye not eat and drink for yourselves?
(4) Is not this an unreasonable thing, that God should so utterly reject such fasting and discipline? saying, It is not his business, nor is it done for his service or honor; yea, he esteems both their eating and fasting alike, saying, They have indeed fasted and eaten, but for themselves, and not for his service. As if to say, Why do you tempt me with your fasting? Who commanded you? What do I ask of your fasting and eating? What does your fasting and eating help or serve me? If you do not want to eat, do not; if you want to fast, do it, so far that you know how I do not ask anything about it. Cause: it is not my fasting, I have not commanded it, nor commanded it; therefore I neither require it, nor respect it; he that commanded it you, or he that was commanded it of you.
If anyone has asked you to do it, you must do it and hold it against him. But you chose it for yourselves without my commandment, so you did it to no one but yourselves; so you may also take the reward from yourselves. Whom you have served with it, let him reward you. You did not serve me with it, so I do not give anything to it.
(5) And in this text the little word "to me" and the little word "to you" are to be paid attention to. For with the two he separates the commandments of men from the commandments of God. To me, to me you have done none of these things, why? Because I have not commanded you any. But to you, to you you have done it. Why? Because you have thought it out and chosen it for yourselves, and so it has pleased you. In the same way they lament Is 58:3: "Why have we fasted, and you have not considered it? We have humbled our souls, and you do not recognize it?" And Jer. 7:21, 22, he says to them, "Make your burnt offerings your sacrifices, and eat flesh: for I spake not unto your fathers, neither commanded I them, when I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
(6) Then we hear again that God does not want all that He Himself has not commanded, as many more of the same sayings are found in both the New and Old Testaments. Why is that? Because, as has been said, all works and commandments that God has chosen for Himself are a plague and a heartache to us, because they are more pleasing to us than what God has commanded; we also pay more attention to them and do them much more diligently than to God's commandments. Which is why God is extremely and justly perverse, so that He also despises and rejects our own work and commandments, just as we despise His commandments and works.
(7) For behold here these men who send their message from Babylon, and make the priests ask what perverse, blasphemous holiness they denounce. They do not ask about God's commandment and what they should do or not do to keep God's law. Oh, they know all this in Babylon itself better than all the priests and prophets in Jerusalem. They do not send out a dog for this purpose, nor do they send a lighter messenger across a street to ask for it; all this has been done,
and there is nothing more to be done about it. There is no conscience, no fault, but pure holiness and complete perfection. They have gone a hundred thousand miles beyond what God commanded, that is, they have fasted and reared; but that they should make supplication for themselves at BethEl, and whether their chosen fast should go any further, there is care, conscience, fear and questioning time, there they find money and messengers, there is no work too much, no way too far, no diligence too hard. Isn't it a disagreeable, disgraceful thing?
8 Look at our nature as well. We are commanded to believe in Christ and to love our neighbor, and to do everything we can and have. But anyone can do this, and it has long since been torn from his shoes; no one would see that he should do anything about it, to learn and to do, not even one lighter, not one step over the threshold. But to build churches. To establish mass, to fast for the saints, to make pilgrimages, to vow monastic life, to give church ornaments, and to keep other church laws, oh, that glitters, there one has money power, there one can fast, wear hard clothes, eat badly, watch, work, there one must learn and ask, toil and toil, that one may become pious and holy etc. But when Christ shall speak at the last day, saying, Dearly beloved, when ye founded churches, have ye founded the same unto me? Who told you to do it? When did I command it? And when you lived obediently, chastely and poorly in the monastery, and kept your rule, did you live and keep it for me? Where did I command it? Go, then, and let him reward thee for whom thou hast lived and kept it. What will all priests, monks, nuns and spiritual people say to this? They must be silent, and yet hear that they have not only chosen and kept all these things for their own service and pleasure, but that they have also neglected and despised God's commandment.
(9) Therefore Isaiah also preaches against such perverse Fastelers and saints, as was said [ยง 5], who also let the commandments of God stand, and wanted to have everything done with fasting and souring, and thus says: "You may ask me what is right", and want to become God, and say: "Why do we fast, and you do not look at it?
Why do we fast our souls, and you do not respect his? Behold, in the day of your fasting your will is found, and you press on, all your debtors. Behold, ye fast, that ye reason, and strive, and smite with fists ungodly. Fast not so as now, lest a cry be heard from you on high. Is this the fasting I mean, when a man chastises his soul in the daytime, and binds up his head like a bundle of straw, and makes his bed in the dust and ashes? Should this be called a fasting day, and a pleasant day of the Lord? But this is a fast that I choose: Loose the ungodly bands, and unloose the heavy burdens, and set free them that are bruised, and tear off every burden. Break thy bread for the hungry, and shelter the poor beggars. Where you see one naked, clothe him, and do not strip yourself of your flesh" etc.
010 Behold, these great saints left unchristian bonds and burdens upon their neighbor, that is, they oppressed the poor, dealing with them by justice and severity, without all mercy. And in addition they showed no good to their neighbors, and went to and fasted in the meantime, and covered their heads, and lay on a hard bed, and looked sour, and hurt their bodies with all kinds of hard living. That is why they should look at God, defy Him, and argue with God, asking why He is so unjust that He does not respect such holiness? and want to teach Him 1) what is right and holy. So he answers again that fasting is right when we forgive our neighbors and let up on the unchristian way in which they are burdened by us, and also do good and help them. He who does this fasts well, even if he is always eating and drinking. But he who does not, does not fast, if he already lives by the wind. But we can easily fast and live hard, but to help and serve our neighbor, to forgive and forbear, that will never go away. Why? Well, that is our thing, our choice, our pleasure. But this is God's commandment, therefore it does not apply.
11 For this reason, Isaiah also calls such pieces "colligantia" impias et fascicu-.
1) In the original: learn.
Loose the ungodly bonds or knots. For what we lay on our neighbor is tightly bound and tied together; we do not like to let up, but would much rather make the burden and burdens greater, and tie them more tightly, so that the neighbor may have to go, and not be released, but pay, and do what he owes, or thus remain bound and entangled and weighed down, the longer the more. That is what he means here ungodly bonds and burdens that are hard loaded and tied on etc.
12 Thus we see how one's own works with their appearance completely nullify the commandments of God, and in addition create a presumption in the heart that wants to be right with God and insist as if it must look at God or should be wrong; that Paul says Titus 1:14.2 Thess. 2, 4. says that the Antichrist exalts himself above God and above God's service, no doubt through his own holiness; and Christ Matth. 15, 3. testifies that the Jews have lifted up God's commandment, so that they might keep men's statutes.
(13) We see this also in the hostile monastic life and spiritual state: there is fasting, feasting, hard lying, vigilance, silence, wearing sharp clothes, being shorn and decided, 1) living without marriage, of which God has commanded nothing. But nevertheless they devour land and people with their interest and goods, flay the people to the legs; there is neither love nor mercy; they do not work, but nevertheless consume the blood and sweat of the poor; those who do not have the bread in the Hanse, they must feed their bellies with all abundance, work day and night etc. Would they also like to be called impiae colligantiae et fasciculi jugi? Nevertheless, they insist on it and wait for God to crown them for special saints; if not, he will have to be wrong and hear: We have fasted, and you will not look at it! We live hard and spiritually, and you do not respect it! etc. But it is our choice, that is why it will come to nothing. God wants His commandments to be kept, and we have enough to keep them.
14. over that, so these men still have
1) "decided", that is, included. In Latin: in dausis vtzrsari.
They have a bad habit of sending to Bethlehem to pray, but to Jerusalem they send for counsel. So they divide their holiness into two parts: they worship at Beth El, at the place where it was always forbidden by the former prophets, and at that time the king of Babylon had put Samaritans and all kinds of peoples, each of whom worshipped his god, as the book of Chronicles describes in Cap. 36, that BethEl had to be both the house of the Lord and the house of the idols, ordained by the choice of men. Thus the doctrine of men always does, that it follows men's own goodwill, or at least mixes it in, so that the dough does not remain unleavened; although the prophet here does not primarily drive this bad habit, but rather their chosen fasting, by which they slackened and despised God's commandment.
V. 7. Is it not this which the Lord preached by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited, and had abundance with her cities round about, and people dwelling, both at noon and in reason?
015 As if to say, I have forbidden such works and services of my own choosing ever since Jerusalem stood, and they are distressed because they would not obey me; and yet ye, being in the midst of the same punishment, let not yourselves be separated, remaining always in your mind, and correcting yourselves nothing. What should you do if Jerusalem were still standing, and you dwelt in peace, as your fathers did, if such great punishment could not yet subdue you or make you understand? And this also is one of virtue, which have the doctrines of men, that they suffer them not to be told: and as St. Paul Titus 1:16 testifieth of them, they are immovable, and not able to any good work, because they obey not, which is lost: but what they think and do is right and good.
V. 8-10 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Judge aright, and shew kindness and mercy every man to his brother; and do not wrong the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, or the poor; neither think evil in his heart against his brother.
(16) These, saith he, were the sermons which I preached by the former prophets. There is no fasting, nor discipline, nor any other work of conceit, which they chose for themselves, but only good works of love toward their neighbor. They left all these things undone, and regarded them as nothing, and in the meantime they began and grew, and led a hard and severe life, as they pleased. I should look upon the same, and forsake my commandments, and despise them as they did. I commanded the kings, princes and priests to judge aright, that they might wait upon their office, that they might be instructed, that there might be peace and protection in the land. They failed to do so, and judged unjustly, abusing their office for violence, so that there was lamentation, strife and clamor in the land; Then they came with their fasting, sacrifices, sour, austere lives, and wanted to be holy with them, and adorn and cover all iniquity, as if I were a child or a fool, who would let myself be mocked with pennies for gold, so that I would accept their rotten, brazen works, and leave my gold works and commandments behind, and become a knave with them, and put up with such their mischievousness.
(17) In the same way, I commanded everyone in general to be kind and merciful to one another, to give, to lend, to give advice, to help anyone who was in need. But that was nothing, it had to be a small thing. Each sought his own, and left his neighbor in need, no one took care of the other. But in the meantime they sacrificed and fasted, or did something else, so that they would not have to do these commandments of mine. And I should laugh at them and be merciful.
Item 18: I commanded that the widows, orphans, strangers and the miserable should not be offended. Not only did they do them no good, but again, all suffering and injustice, only that they might be rich and full. And so they came with their fasting and praying, and their gray, black garments, and they looked sour. Such their babbling and hypocrisy should deceive me, that I should think them holy, and not require my commandments.
019 Item, I commanded that they should be peaceable and patient among themselves, if anyone did anything.
Let it be done by the evil one, that he may forgive, and not avenge, nor repay evil with evil, nor curse with curse, nor backbite, nor slander; but all this must be nothing, a fool must have commanded it. Fools would be the ones who kept it. So it was that every man was an enemy to his neighbor, bearing eternal hatred and envy against him, and where he could do harm and avenge himself, or otherwise prove wickedness, hinder his benefit, or yet not prevent his harm, all this was right, and need not be sin. Why? Because they sacrificed to me till and anise, and burned incense to me, or slept once a week on a hard bed, or ate no meat on Wednesday, and such like trickery.
20 Therefore, see if all this has not been a grievous thing, that one so shamefully despises God's commandment and makes one's own works so glorious. This is exactly how it has been with us up to now, and still is, both in the spiritual and in the temporal government. There was no law, but vain tyranny. Popes and bishops warred and shed blood, but in return they offered about one mass or seven prayers. 1) The world was full of usury and fraud, but in return they lit a wax candle or two at St. Anne's and fasted St. Barbara and Catharine. The monks and nuns were full of hatred and envy, and ate the world's goods with pleasure; but for this they wore caps, and howled in the choir day and night. So it goes on forever: what God gives is nothing; what we do is everything, which God shall look upon and be satisfied with. If God were not so unspeakably merciful and let His wrath pass over us justly, what wonder would it be if we were plagued daily by pestilence, war, the time of trouble, the French, sudden death and all kinds of misfortune? Should the earth swallow us up, that we want to make a fool of God, because we do and leave everything that disturbs him, and in the meantime do other things that please us, and still do not want to hear nor suffer that it should be said to us, as follows:
1) In Latin: soptom Korns, ut voonut.
2) Erlanger: Stift, Pfaffen. Both the Wittenberg and the Jena have our reading.
V. ii. 012 But they would not hearken, but taught their backs to be turned away, and hardened their ears, that they hearkened not; and set their hearts like unto demons, that they hearkened not unto the law and word, which the Lord of hosts sent in his spirit by the former prophets.
How evenly he paints them with their virtues, and how horribly he makes the doctrine of men, that they make a human heart (if they win it) so blind, obdurate and hard against God's commandment. First, he says: "They turn their backs" on God's word when it is preached to them, that is, the more it is said, the more they turn away from it and go their own way, as it says here in Hebrew: et dederunt dorsum declinationis. Secondly, "they harden their ears, that they will not hear". Not all: they do not want to do anything about it; they do not want to hear it either. Thirdly, "they set their hearts against it like demons," so that they not only do not think about it, but also resist and pursue it most horribly. There is no harder and firmer thing than a demon, which no iron or stone can force or tame.
(22) Behold now, in our time, the clergy of the pontifical church with their attachments, as they stand at their fairs and works of men. I mean, you will also have to say that their hearts are vain, their ears hardened, and their backs turned. How clearly, brightly and powerfully they hear God's word against them, it does not help, it is as if a goose were whistling at them, if they cannot deny that their life is vain avarice, hopefulness, pride, laziness, idleness, fornication and unmercifulness to the poor; but the plates and shirts, chasubles and masses will make all this bad against God and acquire heaven, hard by Lucifer, in the abyss of hell.
V. 13. 14. Therefore such great wrath came from the Lord of hosts, and so it came to pass, like
as was preached, and they hearkened not: neither would I hearken when they cried, saith the Lord of hosts. So I have scattered them among all the nations that know them not, and the land behind them is left desolate, that no man walketh therein, neither dwelleth therein; and the noble land is made desolate.
(23) Hard against hard is not good; two hard stones do not grind together. God's commandment is hard, yes, it must remain forever; whoever sets himself against it and wants to be hard against hard, it will certainly not go well for him; but if he does not give way, he will be broken and crushed into vain pieces, yes, into vain dust, as he says here, that the hard Jews, as the demons, were also broken and crushed over their hardness in all the earth, and it did not help them that they cried and prayed for mercy and grace. For they did not desist from their hard hearts, always remaining on their own works, despising God's word.
24 For the fact that God says here that He would not hear when they called is not to be understood that He would not hear when one calls, for He is called in time of need, as He says Ps. 50:15: "Call upon Me in time of need, and I will help thee, and thou shalt praise Me" 2C, but this is to be understood, that where we do not hear his commandment, neither does he hear our prayer; and as we oppose and harden his commandments, and persecute them, so he also opposes and persecutes our prayer, that it must be sin, as the 109th Psalm, v. 7, says: "Let his prayer be sin." But those who accept God's commandment or confess their sin, their prayer is certainly answered. But those who want to be right and not let their sin be sin. They also pray, and call in vain in their distress, as the 18th Psalm, v. 42, also says: "They call, but there is no helper; to the Lord, but he hears them not."