Zechariah 7:10

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 7:11 >>

Zechariah 7:10

And oppress not - He had commanded positive acts of love; he now forbids every sort of unlove. "He that oppresseth the poor," Solomon had said, "reproacheth his Maker. The widow, the orphan, the stranger, the afflicted" Proverbs 24:31, are, throughout the law, the special objects of God' s care. This was the condition which God made by Jeremiah; "If ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in this, place" Jeremiah 7:5-7. It was on the breach of the covenant to set their brethren free in the year of release, that God said; "I proclaim a liberty for you to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine, and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth" Jeremiah 34:17.

And let none of you imagine - that is, "devise, as, by Micah, God retorted the evil upon them. They "devised evil on their beds; therefore, behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks" Micah 2:1, Micah 2:3.

**Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Zechariah 7:10:**

Zechariah 8:16
Romans 4:3

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Zechariah 7:11 >>

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