Zechariah 1:6

"But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like as Jehovah of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us."

But my words and my statutes ..." This thought contrasts with the ephemeral nature of the lives of the fathers and the prophets just mentioned. The argument is that, although the men who spurned the words of God uttered by the prophets were at that time long dead and gone, the word of the Lord was still living and active. Furthermore, the sinful generation who had rejected God's Word, confessed at last the justice of God's dealing with them and testified to the truth of all that God had said through his prophets.

And they turned and said ..." The whole sinful generation did not "turn to God"; and Zechariah made no such claim here; but it is an unquestionable fact that many did turn. For countless thousands of them, there was never any opportunity for them to turn, as they were enslaved, murdered, carried away as captives, starved, mutilated, or beaten to death; but some of the people, called everywhere in the prophets "a righteous remnant," did turn and seek the Lord with all their hearts. Those who at last returned to Jerusalem after the captivity ended are proof enough of that. Morgan listed the returnees as follows:

"Of the priests, 4 courses out of 24; Levites, only 74 individuals; singers, only 128 out of the family of ASAPH: gate-keepers, only 139; helpers, only 392; of the people, 200,000; slaves, 9337."[12]

And they turned ..." The obvious facts noted above did not prevent the radical challengers of God's Word from alleging a contradiction here with Zechariah 1:4 which says the people did not turn. Sellin went so far as to claim this "contradiction" as "a piece of nonsense."[13] Such allegations are indeed "nonsense?" Especially distressing is the attitude of some of the writers in the Interpreter's Bible. D. Winton Thomas, for example, stated that this verse "contradicts what is said in Zechariah 1:4, and is probably a later editorial edition."[14] If such a comment is sincere, it obviously springs out of a failure to understand what the sacred text plainly teaches.

"Did they not overtake your fathers ...?" Men may deny God's Word and try to run away from it, but it always overtakes them. The word here, according to Unger, "The Hebrew root of the word here rendered `overtake' means to reach, or catch up with."[15] The true meaning appears in Deuteronomy 19:6, "Lest the avenger of blood pursue the slayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him."

The nostalgic Psalms which came out of the Babylonian captivity are more than sufficient to show how genuine and sorrowful was the repentance of the more spiritually discerning among the captives. "Thus God was glorified even in their abasement and discomfiture."[16] Keil identified the scriptures that show the penitential attitude of the exiles as Lamentations 2:17; Daniel 9:4ff; and Ezra 9:6ff.[17]

This verse concludes the introductory call to repentance.