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“Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Zechariah 1:5 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
  • KJV Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
  • BSB Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
  • NASB “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
  • NLT “Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God asks pointedly: the fathers and even the prophets have died, but His word endures. Human generations pass, yet God's word outlasts them all.

Overview

Both the disobedient fathers and the prophets who warned them are now gone, but the message remains in force. This rhetorical question presses the hearers to take God's enduring word seriously while they live. It echoes the truth that the word of the Lord stands forever, fulfilled supremely in Christ, the living Word.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 11

  • 2 Pet 3:2–4that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior:
  • Eccl 12:5yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets:
  • Job 14:10–12But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
  • Heb 9:27Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
  • Eccl 12:7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
  • Ps 90:10The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.
  • Acts 13:36For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid with his fathers, and saw decay.
  • Eccl 9:1–3For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.
  • John 8:52Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and you say, ‘If a man keeps my word, he will never taste of death.’
  • Heb 7:23–24Many, indeed, have been made priests, because they are hindered from continuing by death.
  • Eccl 1:4One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Zechariah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Zechariah 1:5YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ZechariahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Branch who is both priest and king, the shepherd struck and the flock scattered, the king coming humble on a donkey, the one they pierced, the fountain opened for sin — Zechariah is dense with Christ.

How Zechariah 1:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.