What Does Zechariah 7:3 Mean in the King James?
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?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse makes years of mourning answerable to a present question: what is this separation for now?
THE MEANING
This question is alive wherever grief has become a repeated practice: its history is visible, but the verse brings attention to what that practice expresses now. Separation names a boundary, and the wording leaves space to ask what that boundary serves.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Years of repetition, by themselves, do not settle whether an act still carries its intended meaning.
THE ROOT
הִנָּזֵר
hinnazer
GROWS FROM
נזר
to set apart, abstain, or keep separate
This root carries separation toward consecration: נָזִיר (nazir), a person set apart by vow, and נֵזֶר (nezer), consecration or a diadem, belong to its word-family. So “separating myself” can carry the sense of setting oneself apart, while the verse leaves open what that separation is directed toward.
ALSO GROWS
nazir: a person set apart by vow; a Nazirite
נָזִיר
This branch shows that separation can be a deliberate setting apart, which sharpens the question of what the speaker’s ongoing separation expresses.
nezer: consecration; a diadem or crown
נֵזֶר
This branch links being set apart with consecrated status, revealing a further shade beneath the English phrase “separating myself.”
THE PATTERN
A repeated act of devotion is examined by its inward direction rather than by repetition alone.
Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.THE THREAD
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD:The same root נזר (nazar), meaning to set apart, appears in the separation named in both verses. Numbers makes its direction explicit, unto the LORD, while Zechariah’s question leaves the direction of this repeated separation open.
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