Zechariah 7:7

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5 “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you ^afasted and mourned in the fifth ^band seventh months ^cduring those seventy years, did you really fast ^dfor Me—for Me?

6 ^aWhen you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?

7 Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the ^aformer prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and ^bthe South and the Lowland were inhabited?’ ”

Disobedience Resulted in Captivity

8 Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,

9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts:
^a‘Execute true justice,
Show¹ mercy and compassion
Everyone to his brother.

10 ^aDo not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
The alien or the poor.
^bLet none of you plan evil in his heart
Against his brother.’

11 “But they refused to heed, ^ashrugged their shoulders, and ^bstopped their ears so that they could not hear.

12 Yes, they made their ^ahearts like flint, ^brefusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. ^cThus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.

13 Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so ^athey called out and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts.

14 “But ^aI scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

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Zechariah 7:7

Should ye "not hear" the words, or, Know ye "not the words?" The verb is presupposed in the emphatic question, as in, "Shall I, the blood of these men?" II Samuel 23:17. David omits the word "drink" for abhorrence.

By the former prophets - Isaiah and Jeremiah , "when Jerusalem was dwelling abidingly," at ease, as the whole world then was, except herself, "and the south and the low-country," both belonging to Judah, were inhabited. The restoration then was still very incomplete, since he contrasts their then condition with the present, as inhabited or no. The mountain, the south, and the low country, known still by its name of Sephela to Greeks , made up the territory of Judah Joshua 10:40, Judges 1:9; Jeremiah 17:26; Jeremiah 32:44; Jeremiah 33:13.

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