SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:5
Vuestros padres, ¿dónde están? Y los profetas, ¿han de vivir para siempre?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Zechariah 1:5
Verse 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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 5. Your fathers, where [are] they ? etc.] 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 29:32) 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.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-6 - God's almighty power and sovereign dominion, should engage an encourage sinners to repent and turn to Him. It is very desirable to have the Lord of hosts for our friend, and very dreadful to have his for our enemy. Review what is past, and observe the message God sent by his servants, the prophets, to your fathers. Turn ye now from your evi ways, and from your evil doings. Be persuaded to leave your sins, a the only way to prevent approaching ruin. What is become of ou fathers, and of the prophets that preached to them? They are all dea and gone. Here they were, in the towns and countries where we live passing and repassing in the same streets, dwelling in the same houses trading in the same shops and exchanges, worshipping God in the sam places. But where are they? When they died, there was not an end of them; they are in eternity, in the world of spirits, the unchangeabl world to which we hasten apace. Where are they? Those of them who live and died in sin, are in torment. Those who lived and died in Christ are in heaven; and if we live and die as they did, we shall be with them shortly and eternally. If they minded not their own souls, is tha a reason why their posterity should ruin theirs also? The prophets ar gone. Christ is a Prophet that lives for ever, but all other prophet have a period put to their office. Oh that this consideration had it due weight; that dying ministers are dealing with dying people abou their never-dying souls, and an awful eternity, upon the brink of whic both are standing! In another world, both we and our prophets shal live for ever: to prepare for that world ought to be our great care in this. The preachers died, and the hearers died, but the word of God died not; not one jot or title of it fell to the ground; for he is righteous.
Original Hebrew
אבותיכם 1 איה 346 הם 1992 והנבאים 5030 הלעולם 5769 יחיו׃ 2421
