7:5 seventh. The fast that mourned the assassination of Gedaliah, the governor of Judah appointed by the Babylonians (2 Kin. 25:25 note).

seventy years. It had been sixty-eight years since the destruction of the temple; Zechariah here speaks in round numbers.

was it for me. Zechariah’s emphatic question points out the hypocrisy of their fasting: their fasts were motivated by self-interest rather than a desire to please God.